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UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 

THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF 
THOMAS  NABBES 


BY 


CHARLOTTE  MOORE 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE.  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL   FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS   FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


Part  I 


George  Banta  Publishing  Co. 

Menasha,  Wisconsin 

1918 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/dramaticworksoftOOmoorrich 


UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF 
THOMAS   NABBES 


BY 

CHARLOTTE  MOORE 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


PartI^^^ 


Qltt  (CalUguite  Presa 

Gkoege  Banta  Publishing  Company 

Menasha,  Wisconsin 

1918 


KXCHANGft 


•  •••••»   • 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface v 

I.  Biographical  Data 1 

II.  Nabbes  and  his  Critics 7 

III.  A  Review  of: 

1.  The  Comedies 12 

2.  The  Masques 17 

3.  The  Tragedy  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother 22 

IV.  The  Tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio 24 

V.  The  Question  concerning  "A  Former  Play" 32 

VI.  The  Original  Sources  and  Influences 40 

VII.  Nabbes'  Hannibal  and  Scipio  compared  with  other  English  and 

Foreign  Plays  on  the  Subject  of  the  Second  Punic  War....  45 

Transcript  of  the  Bodleian  Fragment 53 

Bibliography 59 


PREFACE 

The  Collected  Poems  and  Plays  of  Thomas  N abbes,  edited  by  A.  H. 
Bullen,  and  published  in  1887,  is  the  first  and  only  attempt  to  bring  the 
work  of  this  dramatist  into  a  form  easily  accessible  to  the  student  of  the 
old  drama.  The  introduction  to  this  edition  supplemented  by  Sir 
Sidney  Lee's  sketch  in  The  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  has 
furnished  the  point  of  departure  for  the  biographical  comment  which 
opens  the  present  study  of  Nabbes  as  a  dramatist  and  the  author  of  the 
tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio.  As  far  as  practicable,  the  sources  used 
by  the  biographers  named,  and  by  others  of  the  scant  commentators  upon 
Nabbes,  have  been  carefully  reexamined.  In  the  review  of  the  indivi- 
dual plays,  BuUen's  edition  has  been  used  for  the  comedies,  the  masques 
and  the  tragedy  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother.  For  the  more  detailed 
study  of  the  tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  the  Quarto  text,  1637,  has 
been  used.^ 

The  method  is  indicated  in  general,  at  each  stage  of  the  investigation, 
which  has  aimed  to  distinguish  as  clearly  as  possible  between  the  modi- 
cum of  the  really  authoritative  and  the  purely  inferential  concerning 
Nabbes  and  his  work.  The  aim  has  been  not  so  much  to  draw  conclu- 
sions as  to  find  probable  grounds  for  possible  conclusions. 

Grateful  acknowledgement  is  due  to  the  professors  of  the  depart- 
ment of  English  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  to  whose  lectures 
there  is  traceable  either  direct  or  indirect  influence,  in  this  study.  Spe- 
cial acknowledgement  is  made  to  Professor  F.  E.  Schelling  under  whose 
direction  the  study  was  undertaken  and  to  whose  criticism  it  was  sub- 
mitted. Among  those  of  other  departments  acknowledgement  is  due 
to  Professor  Walton  B.  McDaniel  of  the  department  of  Latin. 

Among  librarians,  those  of  the  circulating  department  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  those  of  Columbia  University  and  the  librarian 
of  the  University  of  Chicago,  are  remembered  for  special  courtesies. 
The  librarian  of  the  Bodleian,  Oxford,  has  generously  granted  a  trans- 
cript of  the  manuscript  fragment  used  in  the  study  of  Hannibal  and 
Scipio,  and  reprinted  at  the  close.  The  Rector  of  Exeter  College  kindly 
sent  copies  of  the  record  of  the  matriculation  of  Nabbes  in  that  College. 

CM. 

May  21,  1915. 

1  Hunter's  Ms.  Chorus  Vatican  in  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  Ms.  24487,  ff.  334. 


I 

Biographical  Data 

So  far  as  known,  the  name,  Thomas  Nabbes,  is  found  in  but  one  ori- 
ginal record,  that  of  the  Register  of  Commoners  at  Exeter  College,  Oxford, 
where  he  was  matriculated  on  the  third  of  May  1601  at  the  age  of  sixteen.^ 
The  same  entry  is  given  by  The  Oxford  Historical  Society,  but  the  name 
is  spelled  doubtfully  as  Nabbes  (Nabbs).^  From  the  meagreness  of 
record  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  Oxford  residence  of  Nabbes  was 
briefer  than  might  be  assumed  from  the  wide  and  accurate  first-hand 
knowledge  of  the  classics  and  of  the  modern  languages  displayed  in  his 
literary  work.^  How  far  this  attainment  and  its  influence  upon  his 
work  are  due  to  academic  training,  is  not  clear,  though  much  of  it  was 
doubtless  the  result  of  his  mental  bent  stimulated  by  the  prevailing 
literary   taste   of   his    time. 

The  Worcestershire  birth  of  Nabbes  indicated  by  his  matriculation, 
is  possibly  supported  by  several  of  his  minor  poems.  An  Encomium 
on  the  London  Steeple  at  Worcester  carries  with  it  a  sense  of  intimacy 
with  the  cathedral  and  its  environment.  The  wish  expressed  at  the 
close  of  the  poem,  to  find  here  a  final  resting  place,  is  suggestive,  though 
not  proof,  of  strong  attachment  to  the  cathedral  and  village. 

Oh  might  I  begge  that  when  my  soule  goes  forth 
Of  this  foule  earth  to  climb  above  thy  head 
And  that  the  rest  be  reckoned  with  the  dead.* 

Two  other  poems  have  been  noted  by  the  two  brief  biographers  of 
Nabbes,  as  indicative  of  Worcestershire  residence.^  BuUen  finds  evidence 
in  these  of  a  more  than  ordinary  conviviahty  of  temperament  for  Nabbes. 
Of  these  poems,  that  Upon  Excellent  Strong  Beere  which  he  drank  at  the 
Towne  of  Wich  in  Worcestershire  where  Salt  is  made  might  pass  as  a 

^  "Nabbes,  Thomas;  plebs.  of  Worcs.  (Worcestershire).  Matriculated  3rd  May, 
1621,  Age  16,"  Register  of  Conmaoners,  Exeter  College,  Oxford. 

2  The  Oxford  Hist.  Soc.  V.  II,  pt.  11,  p.  387. 

3  See  also  Nabbes'  continuation  of  KnowUe's  History  of  the  Turks  where  frequent 
quotation  is  made  from  a  wide  range  of  the  classics,  and  from  modem  foreign  literature. 

*  For  minor  poems  in  this  connection,  see  Bullen,  V.  I,  pp.  238,  242,  246. 

5  See  introduction  to  Bullen's  Collected  Works  of  Thomas  Nabbes,  2  Vols.  (Odl 
Eng.  Plays)  London  1887.  Sidney's  Lee's  Thomas  Nabbes  in  The  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography.  The  sketch  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britanica  follows  BuUen  and 
Lee. 


2  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

tourist's  wine  song  for  which  he  had  popular  examples  among  poets 
of  a  sobriety  consistent  even  with  Puritan  ideals  of  the  day.  The 
second  poem,  Upon  losing  of  his  way  in  a  Forrest  parting  from  his  company 
to  go  home  towards  the  evening,  is  possibly  more  definite  for  the  convivial 
temperament  inferred  by  Bullen.  The  author  relates  that  the  darkness 
added  to  the  uncertainty  of  forest  paths  and  his  equally  uncertain 
steps,  obliged  him  to  ask  hospitality  for  the  night,  at  the  house  of  a 
smith,  to  whom  he  commends  himself  as  a  "Servant  of  my  Lords." 
This  inference  from  his  poems  of  convivial  tendencies  might  find  some 
support  from  the  poet's  verses,  Upon  Mr.  Henry  Welhy  whose  total 
abstinence  extending  to  the  regimen  of  a  strict  vegetarian,  gained  for 
him  the  eccentric  title.  The  Phoenix  of  these  late  times.  The  praise  which 
Nabbes  confers  upon  the  gentleman  as 

A  schoUer  of  all  Sorts  in  some  degree, 
Philosopher,  Historian  and  Divine; 
All  but  a  poet,  for  he  drank  no  wine. 

might  argue  the  author's  confidence  in  a  source  of  inspiration,  at  that 
time  rarely  neglected  by  either  philosopher  or  divine.  It  is  the  local 
basis  of  these  poems  however,  which  givfes  Bullen's  conclusion  that 
"Nabbes  liked  good  liquor,"^  a  precedence  over  an  opposite  inference 
of  strict  temperance  for  Nabbes,  to  be  gathered  from  his  constant  em- 
phasis upon  self-control  in  the  entire  conduct  of  life,  exhibited  in  his 
plays,  and  especially  in  his  Hannibal  and  Scipio.  It  is  perhaps  safe 
to  conclude  that  the  episode  of  the  poem  mentioned,  in  which  Nabbes 
says — "A  pleasant  juyce  (perry)  was  brought,  made  us  beguile  Time 
with  more  words  than  matter,"  probably  was  for  himself  at  least,  an 
isolated  event,  and  all  the  more  proved  so  by  its  celebration  in  the 
author's  verse.'^  As  a  staple  of  Western  Worcestershire,  perry  would 
reasonably  be  celebrated  in  a  poem  connected  with  that  locality,  just 
as  the  beer  of  Wich  was  celebrated  in  the  poem  on  that  place,  and  as 
the  Worcester  Cathedral  was  the  theme  of  the  poem  connected  with 
the  town  of  Worcester. 

It  is  equally  as  hazardous  to  conclude  definitely  individual  traits 
for  Nabbes,  from  the  characters  of  his  plays.  That  he  was  constant 
to  lofty  dramatic  ideals,  and  that  he  was  a  man  of  excellent  motives, 
no  reader  of  his  plays  can  doubt.  Whether  his  personal  characteristics 
were  those  of  Sam,  his  "deserving  gentleman  of  the  Inlis  of  Court," 

« Bullen,  V.  I,  p.  271. 

'  Upon  Losing  of  his  way  in  a  Forrest,  etc.     Bullen,  V.  I    p.  242. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  3 

or  whether  Changelove  of  the  same  play,  portrays  more  nearly  its 
author's  habitual  moods,  there  can  at  least  be  no  doubt  that  his  Sam, 
and  his  Scipio  Africanus  express  his  approved  principles  of  conduct, 
and  that  in  ideal  at  least,  he  never  declined  below  the  better  moments 
of  his  Changelove  who  holds  that, 

Society  is  the  use 

Of  man's  best  ornaments,  speech  and  discourse 
Are  reason's  messengers,  that  carry  errands 
From  one  soule  to  another.     I  confesse 
I  love  good  company.* 

Except  the  date  of  his  matriculation  at  Oxford,  all  dates  and  events 
associated  with  Nabbes  by  his  brief  biographical  sketches,  are  wholly 
conjectural  from  his  works.  Even  his  short  poems  described  above 
seem  to  be  merely  reminiscent  of  Worcestershire.  As  shown  by  its 
connection.  An  Encomium  on  the  leaden  Steeple  was  written  after  the 
benefactor  of  the  cathedral.  Dr.  William  Juxon,  had  been  made  Bishop 
of  London,  and  at  least  six  years  after  the  date  1630,  assigned  by  bio- 
graphers as  the  beginning  of  Nabbes'  London  life."^  The  date  1630 
is  itself  wholly  conjectural  from  the  supposition  that  Covent  Garden, 
which  was  acted  in  1632,  was  the  author's  first  play.^^ 

From  1632-41,  the  poet's  name  appears  not  infrequently  among 
those  of  playwrights  and  other  poets,  sometimes  in  connection  with 
commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  certain  editions  of  poets  of  the  day, 
as  well  as  in  other  memorial  tribute.  The  circumstances  as  well  as 
the  date  of  Nabbes'  death  are  unknown.  The  brief  note  in  Chamber's 
Encyclopedia  of  English  Literature  gives  1645  as  approximately  the 
date  of  his  death,  but  there  is  evidently  no  reliable  source  for  this  date." 
As  an  author  Nabbes  disappears  in  1641.  Whether  like  Shirley,  he 
found  retreat  amid  rural  scenes,  or  whether  as  Bullen  conjectures,  he 
may  have  fallen  in  battle  for  his  King,  it  is  impossible  to  say.^^  The 
latter  conjecture  is  pleasing  in  so  far  as  it  suggests  such  martial  adventure 
as  that  in  which  his  "true  friend"  and  fellow  playwright,  Shackerley 
Marmion,  lost  his  life.    A  more  prosaic  but  more  probable  conjecture 

8  Tottenham  Court,  Act  V,  3,  p.  172.     Bullen,  V.  I. 

9  See  the  date  of  the  poem  (1637)  affixed  to  the  title  page,  by  the  author,  (Bullen 
V.  II,  p.  242). 

"  For  the  date  1630  see  Lee,  Dictionary  National  Biography,  XI,  Thomas  Nabbes. 
"Allibone's  Critical  Dictionary,  Eng.  Lit.  VII,  Philadelphia,  1880,  also  gives 
date  1645. 

12  Bullin's  Introd.  p.  xii,  V.  I. 


4  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

would  accept  1641  as  approximately  the  date  of  Nabbes'  death.  If 
we  may  trust  tradition,  he  died  in  London,  and  was  buried  in  the  Temple 
Church,  in  the  near  neighborhood  of  which  he  must  have  had  residence. 
BuUen  cites  Baker's  Companion  to  the  Play  House,  1764,  as  giving  Coex- 
ter's  opinion  that,  "This  is  the  Thomas  Nabbes  who  Hes  buried  in  the 
Temple  Church,  under  the  organ,  on  the  inner  side."^^  As  to  the  absence 
of  his  name  in  the  burial  register  of  the  church,  Bullen  quotes  Canon 
Angler's  opinion  that  the  omission  is  referable  to  the  poet's  humble 
station,  an  explanation  evidently  inadequate.  Baker's  quoted  reference 
to  the  burial  place  of  a  Thomas  Nabbes  in  the  Temple  Church  however 
accords  with  an  inference  regarding  the  London  residence  of  Nabbes,  to 
be  derived  from  certain  characters  of  his  Tottenham  Court,  and  especially 
from  his  dedication  of  The  Bride. 

The  latter  comedy  acted  in  1638  is  addressed  by  the  author,  "to 
the  GeneraHty  of  His  noble  friends,  Gentlemen  of  the  several  Honorable 
Houses  of  the  Inns  of  Court. "  A  hint  of  employment  on  the  part  of  the 
Inns  is  given  at  the  close  of  the  dedication.  After  commending  The 
Bride  to  their  acceptance  and  protection,  he  adds;  "And  the  honor 
that  you  doe  me  thereby  will  add  to  those  many  engagements  that 
bind  me  always  to  declare  myself  your  most  thankful  servant,  Thomas 
Nabbes."  Tottenham  Court  acted  in  1633,  has  among  its  principal 
characters,  two  gentlemen  of  the  Inns  of  Court.  The  inference  is  reason- 
able that  Nabbes  had  residence  in  the  Inns  of  Court.  Whether  like 
Beaumont  and  Wycherley  and  Tom  Moore,  he  was  a  student  at  law, 
or  like  Johnson,  Goldsmith,  Cowper,  Lamb  and  others,  he  was  a  lodger 
merely,  or  whether  he  held  a  clerk's  or  a  secretary's  position,  it  is  not 
clear.  The  tone  of  the  dedication  as  well  as  the  apparent  respect  in 
which  Nabbes  was  held  by  contemporary  writers,  would  at  least  favor 
the  view  that  he  possessed  the  qualities  essential  to  a  cultured  man  of 
that  day.  His  favorite  studies,  Greek  and  Latin  Hterature  besides 
general  literature  and  history,  were  those  required  for  entrance  as  a  law 
student  at  the  Inns  of  Court. ^^  Whether  he  resided  at  the  Inner  Temple, 
the  proverbial  residence  of  the  less  wealthy,  would  depend  upon  whether 
Nabbes'  depreciation  of  his  means  may  be  considered  sincere  or  whether 
it  was  merely  the  seventeenth  century  author's  conventional  flaunt  at 
his  fortune.     The  character  of  Nabbes'  dramatic  work  classes  it  with 

^'Baker's  Companion  to  the  Play  House,  V.  II,  Thomas  Nabbes.  Coexter's 
Manuscript  notes  were  used  by  Gibber  in  his  Lives  of  the  Poets. 

"Walter  Thombury's  "Old  and  New  London,"  V.  I;  13-16,  pp.  173-179.  Lon- 
don (no  date). 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  5 

that  of  members  of  the  Inns  of  Court.  His  critics  are  agreed  upon  his 
excellence  as  a  writer  of  masques.  It  is  quite  possible  from  his  phrase 
"those  many  engagements,"  that  he  composed  eatertainments  for  the 
Inns,  upon  occasions  not  on  record. 

The  brief  poems  of  Nabbes  complimenting  the  work  of  his  fellow- 
playwrights  and  poets,  are  of  the  kind  incident  to  the  most  informal 
intercourse  of  their  gild.^^  These  define  in  general  the  Hterary  envi- 
ronment of  Nabbes.  Among  those  whom  he  addresses  as  friends  are: 
Schackerly  Morman  and  Sir  John  Suckling,  both  gentlemen  of  depleted 
fortunes;  Robert  Chamberlain,  the  author  of  Nocturnal  Lucubrations , 
1638;  John  Tatham,  the  dramatist  and  the  composer  of  the  Lord  Mayor's 
pageants;  Thomas  Jordan,  Tatham's  successor  as  city  poet,  and  the 
author  of  Poetical  Varieties,  1640;  also  Thomas  Beedome  of  the  Poems 
Divine  and  Human,  1641.  Among  complimentary  verses  addressed  to 
Nabbes  are  those  of  Richard  Brome,  "To  his  deare  friend,  the  author 
upon  his  Microcosmus.^^  Brome  had  risen  from  the  rank  of  servant  to 
Ben  Jonson,  to  the  place  of  leading  playwright  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  first.  Fortune's  wheel  almost  measured  its  round  in  these  friends 
of  Nabbes,  as  they  met  upon  the  common  ground  of  poets  with  an  occa- 
sional play,  and  of  dramatists  with  occasional  poems.  Nabbes  appar- 
ently had  as  strong  an  afl&nity  with  the  poets  of  the  group  as  with  the 
playwrights,  and  so  fraternized  with  both. 

The  association  of  Nabbes  with  those  of  the  older  dramatists  who 
then  survived,  is  even  more  purely  a  matter  of  inference  from  his  works; 
but  external  circumstances  also  favor  the  possibility  of  a  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  Ben  Jonson  who  was  still  the  center  of  an  admiring  circle 
of  poets  and  playwrights  recognized  by  him  as  his  "sons"  in  the  art. 
The  Apollo  Room,  which  had  superseded  the  Mermaid  of  earUer  days, 
was  at  the  Devil's  Tavern,  not  far  from  the  Temple  Church.  Of  the 
Mermaid  group,  there  remained  Chapman,  Dekker,  Marston,  Webster, 
Massinger  Ford  and  Shirley,  and  of  these,  the  two  latter  with  Webster 
were  yet  strong  in  their  best  work.  Nabbes'  London  associates  in  gen- 
eral indicate  his  literary  status  among  his  fellow  writers.  One  of  his 
Job's  comforters  after  The  Unfortunate  Mother  had  been  refused  by  the 
actors,  declares  that  tragedy  to  have  rivalled  Davenant's  popular  Albo- 
vine.  He  assures  Nabbes  that  The  Unfortunate  Mother  was  well-plotted 
and  well-written,  he  bids  him  remember  its  illustrious  companion  in 

*5  See  close  of  Vol.  I,  Bullen. 

i«  Prefixed  to  Microcosmus,  V.  II  (Bullen)  p.  162. 


6  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

failure,  Jonson's  The  New  Inn}"^  Another  assures  him  that  the  play 
would  have  proved  good,  had  it  only  been  acted.^^  Another  compliments 
his  "muse  that  doth  so  sweetly  sing."^^  There  is  a  sort  of  naivete  in 
the  author's  act  of  dedicating  this  rejected  child  of  his  muse  to  a  stranger, 
the  "Right  worshipfull  Richard  Braithwaite,  Esquire.^^  The  solace  of 
friends  however  biassed,  might  have  sufficed,  had  the  author's  disap- 
pointment arisen  merely  from  wounded  vanity;  but  this  appeal  to  a 
critic  of  accredited  taste  upon  whose  favor  friendship  could  have  no 
claim,  is  apparently  not  in  the  spirit  of  the  ordinary  seeker  of  patronage. 
Nabbes  usually  dedicated  his  plays  to  his  friends:  Covent  Garden  to 
"  his  admired  friend,  The  Rightworthy  of  His  Honours,  Sir  John  Suckling, 
Knight;"  Tottenham  Courts  to  "The  Worshipfull  WilHam  Mills,  Esquire 
.  .  .  as  a  pubHck  declaration  of  the  gratitude  I  owe  you. "  The  Springes 
Glory  is  dedicated  to  "Master  WiUiam  Balle,  the  young  son  of  his  friend, 
Peter  Balle.  The  Bride,  as  noted  above,  was  dedicated  "To  the  Gener- 
ality of  His  noble  friends  ...  of  the  Inns  of  Court."  On  the  whole 
Nabbes'  dedications  appear  to  have  been  written  hardly  with  a  view  to 
advancement  as  a  playwright;  they  have  rather  the  tone  of  an  author  who 
made  playwriting  an  avocation  of  pride  and  delight.  The  only  apparent 
exception  to  this  is  the  author's  complaint  in  his  address  to  the  ghosts 
of  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  of  some  lack  of  pay  for  the  writing  of  that  play.^^ 
The  brief  Hst  of  Nabbes'  plays,  the  single  performance  of  those  which 
were  acted,  and  the  two  excellent  masques  that  were  not  acted,  the  light, 
thoughtless  compliments  of  his  friends  who  generally  reiterate  the 
author's  own  aims  and  ideals,  all  belong  to  the  range  of  an  amateur. 
Microcosmus  is  the  only  play  of  Nabbes,  which  bears  upon  its  title  page 
such  evidence  of  public  approval  as  "Presented  with  general  liking." 
Prefixed  to  this  as  pubHshed  in  1637,  are  verses  by  Richard  Brome  and 
an  imidentified  Will  CuFaude.^^  Brome  comphments  the  author  upon 
his  philosophy,  learning  and  wit  that  make  the  play  a  means  of  "profit 
and  delight."  The  second  writer  compliments  the  "poetic  rage"  that 
would  "make  a  schoole  of  virtue  of  a  common  stage."     Both  writers 

"  See  Complimentaty  Verses  signed  C.  G.,  p.  89,  with  Bullen's  note  on  Carew- 
Hazlitt's  opinion  that  Charles  Gerber  wrote  these  lines. 

^*  Signed  E.  B.  which  Bullen  thinks  the  initials  for  Edward  Beedome,  poet  and 
patron  of  poets,  p.  89,  V.  II. 

19  Signed  R.  W.  for  which  no  name  has  been  found.     See  p.  89,  V.  II,  Bullen. 

20  See  p.  85,  V.  II,  Bullen. 

21  The  Ghosts  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  to  the  author  B.  V.  II. 

22  See  Bullen  V.  I,  pp.  162-3.  Of  "Will  CuFaude"  nothing  has  been  found. 
Horace,  Ars  Poetica,  1.  333  "Aut  prodesse  volunt  aut  delectare  Poetae." 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  7 

apparently  echo  the  Horatian  motto  borne  by  the  title  page  of  Micro- 
cosmus,  ''Debent  et  prodesse  et  delectare  Poetae,"  a  sentence  briefly 
summarizing   the   dramatic   creed   of   Nabbes. 

In  his  prologues,  Nabbes  often  contrasts  himself  with  his  latter  day 
playwrights,  in  that  his  plays  gave  a  serious  turn  to  light  subjects  treated 
upon  the  contemporary  stage.^^  As  usual  with  conscientious  writers 
his  excellent  aims  were  acknowledged;  but  his  work  was  not  overrated 
by  a  public  intent  upon  amusement  rather  than  upon  ethical  values. 

It  is  apparent  that  Nabbes  was  not  a  timeserver  in  his  dramatic 
work.  His  clearly  defined  ideals  held  hard  by  the  Jonsonian  precept  that 
the  office  of  the  dramatist  is  to  interpret  the  life  of  his  age  in  such  a  way 
as  to  set  forth  the  eternal  verities;  but  the  age  that  had  been  even  half- 
way inclined  thus  to  view  the  drama,  had  passed  away.  Nabbes  like 
his  Master  Jonson,  had  to  beat  his  poetic  wings  against  the  unyielding 
bars  of  pubhc  opinion.  In  endeavoring  to  keep  the  drama  to  its  nobler 
office,  each  had  to  take  for  his  solace,  that  in  ideal  at  least,  he  was  above 
the  grovelHng  audiences  and  those  playwrights  who  were  content  to 
please  them. 

II 

Nabbes  ai«)  his  Critics 

Among  dramatic  compilers  and  critics  the  meagre  and  somewhat 
conflicting  comment  upon  the  work  of  Nabbes,  has  mainly  repeated  the 
verdict  of  his  own  day,  in  its  mingled  recognition  and  neglect.  Those 
nearest  his  own  time  and  those  farthest  from  it,  regard  him  the  more 
favorably.  Lee  quotes  Samuel  Shepherd's  The  Times  Displayed  pub- 
fished  in  1646,  five  years  after  the  date  of  Nabbes'  last  pubfished  poem, 
as  ranking  him  with  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Shirley  and  Davenant, 
and  as  especially  commending  his  Hannibal  and  Scipio.^  Bullen  finds 
that  the  English  Treasury  of  Wit  and  Language,  edited  by  John  Cot- 
grove  in  1655,  includes  among  that  miscellany  "many  wise  and  well- 
expressed  extracts  from  Nabbes.  Near  the  close  of  his  century  in  1691, 
Nabbes  is  ranked  by  Langbaine  as  a  third-rate  poet,   though  as  one 

23  See  Prologues  to  Covent  Garden,  Tottenham  Court,  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  V.  I, 
Bullen.  Prologue  to  The  Bride,  The  Unfortunate  Mother,  V.  II,  Bullen,  The  Spring's 
Glory,  p.  219,  V.  II,  p.  256,  "A  Presentation,  etc." 

^*  An  Elegie  on  his  Ingenious  friend,  the  deserving  Author,  Master  Thomas  Beedotne. 
Prefixed  to  Thomas  Beedome's  Poems  Divine  and  Human,  1641.  Lee  refers  to  the 
Sixth  Sestiad,  Assyzes  of  Apollo. 


8  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

pretty  much  respected  by  the  poets  of  his  time.^  Langbaine  commends 
Nabbes  in  that  "  what  he  pubUshed  was  his  own  and  not  borrowed  from 
others";  but  even  in  this,  Langbaine  has  taken  Nabbes  at  his  own  word, 
basing  the  statement  upon  the  prologue  to  Covent  Garden  where  the 
author, 

Justifies  that  'tis  no  borrowed  straine 

From  the  invention  of  another's  braine 

Nor  did  he  steale  the  Fancie  -.^^ 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Nabbes  had  fallen  in  the  scale 
of  the  critics.  The  author  of  Cibber^s  Lives  of  the  Poets,  pubUshed  in 
1753,  gives  Nabbes  fifth  rank.^^  Sir  Walter  Scott  who  expressed  him- 
self dehghted  with  Shackerley  Marmion's  The  Antiquary,  takes  no  notice 
of  the  much  less  farcical  and  more  nearly  romantic  characterization  of 
an  antiquary  in  Nabbes'  comedy,  The  Bride.  Genest  has  the  following 
perfunctory  review  of  these  plays.  "Covent  Garden  is  a  poor  play, 
having  no  plot  and  little  incident,  Tottenham  Court  has  scenes  that 
appear  to  advantage.  Hannibal  and  Scipio  is  not  a  bad  tragedy  nor 
has  it  much  to  recommend  it";  but  by  virtue  perhaps  of  the  romantic 
reversion,  the  same  writer  styles  The  Unfortunate  Mother,  ''a  very  good 
play."^^  Samuel  Brydges  merely  mentions  the  dramatic  work  of 
Nabbes,  but  notes  more  specifically  that  he  wrote  in  1637,  a  continua- 
tion of  Knolles'  History  of  the  Turks. ^^ 

Later  comment  upon  Nabbes,  though  still  meager  and  conflicting 
in  valuation,  shows  a  tendency  to  return  to  the  estimate  of  the  author 
in  his  own  day.  Ward  names  his  as  "a  meritorious  writer  of  dramatic 
works  of  various  kinds";  but  Ward  is  chiefly  interested  in  the  Moral 
Masque,  Microcosmus,  which  he  says  has  a  certain  interest  in  having 
been,  so  far  as  known,  the  first  dramatic  composition  of  the  kind  ever 
exhibited  on  a  public  stage.^°  Lee,  whose  biographical  sketch  of  Nabbes 
is  the  more  detailed,  though  in  essentials  following  Bullen,  estimates  the 
author  as  "a  passable  writer  of  comedies,  inventing  his  own  plots,  and 
lightly  censuring  the  foibles  of  middle  class  London  society. "  He  thinks 
his  tragedies  not  attractive,  but  notes  his  "satisfactory  command  of  the 

^Langbaine's  An  Account  of  the  English  Dramatic  Poets,  1691. 
2«  Prologue  to  Covent  Garden,  p.  5,  V.  I,  Bullen. 

27  Gibber's  Lives  of  the  Poets  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  5  Vols.  London,  1753. 
V.  II. 

28  History  of  the  Drama  and  Stage  in  England  from  1660  to  1830.    V.  10,  ed.  1832. 

29  Biographia  Litera  V.  I,  p.  439,  Pub.  1838  as  the  5th  edition. 
3"  History  of  English  Dramatic  Literature.     V.  3,  p.  194. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  9 

niceties  of  blank  verse  in  which  all  of  his  plays  are  mainly  written."'^ 
BuUen,  the  most  authoritative  student  of  Nabbes,  commends  him  as 
"an  elegant  scholar  and  a  man  of  gentle  disposition,  the  author  of  some 
agreeable  comedies,  but  having  little  genius  for  tragedy."  Bullen's 
valuation  of  Nabbes  has  a  judiciousness  that  is  not  impaired  but  rather 
enforced  by  its  rhetorical  close.  "His  place  is  at  the  feet  of  Shirley, 
on  the  lower  slopes  of  Parnassus.  He  has  much  of  Shirley's  fluency  and 
refinement,  with  not  a  little  of  his  limpidness  and  tenuity.  He  was  well 
nigh  the  last  of  the  runners  in  the  torch  race,  and  the  light  burned  very 
dimly.     But  it  was  a  light  not  unfathered  by  the  fire  of  Ida.  "^^ 

Thus  the  pendulum  of  criticism  has  swung  forward  and  back  in  the 
some  two  hundred  and  seventy  years  since  The  Unfortunate  Mother 
went  unacted  into  print.  Even  the  latest  valuation  of  Nabbes  "as  well 
above  the  average  of  his  lesser  contemporaries,"  leaves  him  still,  if  not 
merely  an  amateur,  at  the  best  a  minor  dramatist,  with  the  small  extant 
output  of  five  plays  and  three  masques.^^  His  work  however  has  for 
the  student,  the  usual  advantage  of  the  minor  writer,  in  its  reflection 
of  hterary  tendencies  of  his  day  with  their  own  bearing  backward  into 
the  EUzabethan  and  early  Stuart  drama,  and  forward  into  the  drama 
of  the  Restoration.  This  is  not  to  say  that  Nabbes  was  nothing  but 
imitative  of  others.  Such  resemblances  as  he  bears  to  the  earlier  Eliza- 
bethans and  to  the  Jonsonian  school,  as  well  as  to  continental  dramatists, 
are  due  somewhat  to  his  treatment  of  the  same  themes  and  the  same 
types  of  character,  though  embodied  in  less  hackneyed  phases  of  life. 
Though  his  characters  and  situations  lack  the  robustness  of  the  t)^es 
of  Roman  comedy  employed  by  Jonson,  they  are  compensated  for 
by  an  individuahty  of  humor  drawn  from  Enghsh  fife  as  Nabbes  knew 
it.  For  the  Roman  sharper  and  his  victim,  Nabbes  has  substituted  the 
roistering  unscrupulous,  Londoner  and  the  artless  country  people  of  its 
neighborhood.  Nabbes  uses  much  the  same  range  of  classical  allusion 
in  vogue  from  Marlowe  and  Dekker  to  Jonson.  Like  Jonson  he  is  con- 
scious in  his  method;  like  Jonson  also  he  is  subtil ely  rather  than  broadly 
humorous,  except  in  his  coarser  characterizations  drawn  from  the  tavern 
life  of  his  day.  At  all  times  he  is  didactic  either  through  contrast  or 
else  by  direct  precept;  but  in  his  comedies  he  never  far  exceeds  an  artis- 
tic implicitness  of  the  moral.    Like  most  of  his  contemporaries,  Nabbes 

«Dict.  of  Nat'l.  Biog. 

"See  Introduction,  V.  I.    Nabbes'  Collected  Works. 

"SchelUng's  Elizabethan  Drama,  V.  II,  pp.  45,  134,  279,  280,  28L 


10  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

is  eclectic,  but  he  selects  in  accordance  with  an  aesthetic  purpose  wholly 
his  own. 

As  mentioned  above,  Nabbes'  earlier  critics  accept  his  own  statement 
that  he  invented  the  plots  of  his  comedies,  but  they  usually  make  the 
reservation  that  the  faculty  of  plot-invention  is  in  itself  of  no  special 
value  to  a  dramatist.  Nabbes,  however,  mentions  the  originality  of 
his  plots  partly  in  protest  against  the  charge  of  borrowing,  and  partly 
to  differentiate  his  comedies  from  the  more  popular  plays  of  the  day.^ 
Like  Jonson's  his  plots  are  incidental  to  his  selection  of  motive  and 
especially  to  his  portrayal  of  character  which  in  certain  novel  situations 
where  Nabbes  is  a  master,  develops  of  itself  the  dramatic  action.  Nabbes 
is  chiefly  interested  in  character  as  reflecting  his  ideal  of  life.  In  this 
he  was  consciously  far  above  his  contemporary  playwrights  who  treat 
lightly  and  almost  wholly  farcically  the  same  subjects  in  which  Nabbes 
discriminates  precisely  between  the  lighter  and  the  more  serious  phases. 
In  his  prologue  to  Covent  Garden,  Nabbes  denies  dependence  upon  other 
playwrights  and  describes  himself  as  one  whose 

Muse  is  solitary  and  alone 

Doth  practice  her  low  speculation. 

The  early  critics  of  Nabbes  based  their  valuation  chiefly  upon  his 
poetic  qualities.  Eighteenth  century  reference  to  his  work  repeats  for 
the  greater  part,  the  traditional  criticism  of  his  poetic  and  dramatic 
qualities.  Critics  of  a  still  later  time  and  of  the  present  day,  have 
estimated  his  dramatic  work  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  public  stage  of 
the  author's  own  day.  There  remains  another  slightly  different  point 
of  view  from  which  the  plays  of  Nabbes  may  be  read ;  that  is,  from  their 
character  of  a  more  nearly  private  entertainment,  which  it  would  appear 
their  author  had  chiefly  in  mind,  especially  if  we  take  into  consideration 
the  entire  content  and  form  of  his  plays.  In  the  Prologue  to  Hannibal 
and  Scipio,  there  is  a  hint  for  the  more  private  and  special  audience. 
This  play  as  indicated  by  its  crudeness  of  structure  extending  to  a 
phrasing  and  diction  characteristic  of  late  sixteenth  century  plays  from 
Latin  sources,  probably  antedates  Covent  Garden  in  composition.  It  is 
thus  the  first  of  Nabbes'  dramatic  work,  and  as  such  may  be  trusted  to 
foreshadow  his  aims  with  reference  to  a  more  nearly  private  audience. 
He  assures  for  his  play  that, 

^  For  an  exception,  see  the  prologue  to  Hannibal  and  Scipio  where  he  suggests 
the  possibility  of  having  borrowed  from  "a  former  play."  It  is  also  probable  that 
the  motives  and  character  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother  are  borrowed. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  11 

'Tis  free 
As  ever  play  was  from  scurrility 
Nor  need  you  Ladies  feare  the  horrid  sight; 
And  the  more  horrid  noise  of  target  fight 
By  the  blue  coated  Stage-keepers;  our  sphears 
Have  better  music  to  delight  your  eares  .  .  . 

Earlier  in  the  prologue,  he  has  assured  his  audience  that 

"Ladies  shall  not  blush 
Nor  smile  under  their  fannes;  nor  he  in  plush, 
That  from  the  Poet's  labours  in  the  pit 
Informes  himself  for  the  exercise  of  wit 
At  Tavemes,  gather  notes. ^ 

The  present  study  accepts  the  above  for  evidence,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  author's  work,  of  a  discrimination  between  the  character  of  his  plays 
and  that  of  the  ordinary  public  play,  as  explained  later  in  his  prologue 
to  Covent  Garden.  This  attitude  of  Nabbes  toward  his  work  will  be 
taken  as  sufficient  ground  for  certain  Umitations  in  the  plays  noted  when 
they  are  compared  with  contemporary  plays  of  a  more  public  character. 
It  will  also,  to  some  degree,  account  for  the  narrow  range  of  his  theme, 
for  his  didacticism  which  is  considered  essential  to  the  masque  and  its 
near  ally,  the  private  entertainment,  often  more  or  less  akin  to  the  moral- 
ity play.  With  this  inference  from  the  dramatist's  words  concerning 
his  audience  and  his  appeal  through  his  plays,  the  present  study  will 
proceed:  first,  to  review  generally  the  dramatic  work  of  Nabbes  with 
reference  to  the  types  presented,  with  the  formal  content  of  each  plot; 
second,  to  discuss  the  question  of  his  sources  and  their  possible  infliiences 
upon  his  work.  The  aim  of  the  investigation  will  be  to  show  possible 
grounds  upon  which  judicious  inference  may  be  based.  As  the  culminat- 
ing interest  of  the  study  is  in  the  tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  the 
interpretation  of  which  is  closely  related  and  to  some  degree  dependent 
upon  that  of  his  other  plays,  the  more  intensive  study  of  that  play  will 
be  reached  through  a  study  of  his  entire  dramatic  work.  Beginning  with 
his  comedies  and  proceeding  to  his  masques  which  may  be  considered  as 
occupying  the  chief  place  in  his  work,  it  is  hoped  that  ^ome  not  indefinite 
clue  to  the  interpretation  as  well  as  to  the  sources  of  the  dramatist's 
Hannibal  and  Scipio  may  be  reached. 

35  Prolog,  Q.  11.  3-7  and  22-27. 


12  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 


III 

A  Review  of  the  Dramatic  Work  of  Nabbes 

1 

Of  the  dramatic  work  of  Nabbes  the  three  comedies  of  manners, 
Covent  Garden,  Tottenham  Court  and  The  Bride,  have  been  considered, 
next  to  his  masques,  his  most  successful  work.^^  As  usual  with  this  type, 
the  individual  humor  or  bias  is  indicated  in  the  names  of  the  characters. 
The  leading  characters  are  genarally  from  the  higher  middle  class  EngHsh 
life  with  a  background  of  minor  characters  from  the  lower  middle  class 
or  the  servant  class.  The  dramatic  action  developed  through  the 
characters,  is  for  the  greater  part,  simple,  though  complicated  sufficiently 
for  interest  and  suspense,  by  witty  ruse  carried  chiefly  by  the  women 
of  the  action.  As  a  whole  the  theme  of  these  comedies  has  the  effect 
of  humorous  comment  upon  certain  follies  incident  to  the  different 
classes  of  London  and  of  country  life  represented  in  the  play.  In  all 
three  of  the  comedies  the  action  treats  the  conventional  theme  of  the 
poet  and  playwright  of  the  time,  the  different  phases  of  love,  though  in 
these  plays  of  Nabbes',  with  emphatic  preference  for  the  courtier  or 
chivalric  love. 

In  the  earlier  comedy,  Covent  Garden,  Artlove,  "  a  compleat  Gentleman 
with  two  "wilde  Gallants,"  Jerker  by  name,  appear  as  contrasting  types 
of  seventeenth  century  London  society.  Of  these  two  types  of  character, 
Jerker  may  appeal  to  the  present-day  reader  as  more  natural  than 
Artlove;  but  this  would  doubtless  be  because  the  role  of  the  wild  gallant 
admits  of  greater  freedom  of  phrase  and  of  action,  also  because  his 
type  of  character  has  to  a  certain  degree  survived  that  of  Artlove.  The 
latter  however  must  as  a  true  courtier,  be  expected  to  talk  by  the  book 
and  according  to  a  philosophical  mode  beyond  the  earthy  apprehension 
of  these  wild  gallants  who  dub  his  high  phrasing,  "bookish  humours." 
Artlove's  role  in  the  play  turns  upon  his  admiration  for  Dorothy  Worthy 
from  whose  noble  character  his  affection  takes  its  tone. 

where  there  is  an  union 

Of  loving  hearts,  the  joy  exceeds  expression, 
That  love  is  vertuous  whose  desires  doe  never 
End  in  their  satisfaction,  but  increase 

^  Covent  Garden  acted  by  the  Queen's  Servants,  1632-3,  and  pubHshed  in  1638. 
Tottenham  Court,  acted  at  the  private  house  in  Salisbury  Court,  1633.  Pr.  1638.  The 
Bride,  acted  at  the  Private  House  in  Drury  Lane,  by  the  Queen's  Servants,  1638. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  13 

Towards  the  object;  when  a  beateous  forme 
Gamisht  with  all  the  lustre  of  perfection 
Invites  the  eye  and  tells  the  searching  thought 
It  holds  a  richer  minde,  with  which  my  soule 
Would  rather  mixe  her  faculties.^^ 

In  interesting  contrast,  Dorothy  Worthy  regulates  her  affections  and 
her  theories  about  destiny  according  to  the  best  seventeenth  century 
tenets. 

There  is  a  power 

Called  Fate,  which  doth  necessitate  the  will, 

And  make  desire  obedient  to  its  rule. 

All  the  resisting  faculties  of  reason. 

Prevention,  feare  and  jealousie  are  weake 

To  disannul  what  in  its  firme  decrees 

Is  once  determined.     Yet  my  heart  is  free; 

Unbounded  by  the  stricter  limits  of 

Particular  affection;  so  I'le  keep  it  ...  ^^ 

These  ideaUsations  of  young  womanhood  and  of  young  manhood  in 
Dorothy  Worthy  and  Artlove,  with  their  opposites  in  the  young  rowdies, 
Hugh  and  Jeffry  Jerker,  along  with  Mrs.  Tongall,  "a.  busie  gossip," 
are  dramatically  offset  in  the  minor  action  developed  by  elderly  Sir 
Generous  Worthy's  doting  jealousy  of  his  young  wife.  The  latter 
in  witty  reprisal,  feigns  to  encourage  the  advances  of  Jeffry  Jerker, 
though  her  sole  purpose  is  to  correct  the  fault  of  jealousy  in  her  much- 
revered  husband.  However  unsuccessful  such  a  corrective  might  be 
in  actual  life,  its  stage  effect  is  fortunate  in  directing  and  carrying  the 
farcial  and  satirical  comment  upon  social  foibles  and  vices. 

The  varied  ideals  of  higher  social  life  are  contrasted  with  the  more 
matter-of-fact  love  affairs  of  the  servants  in  the  Worthy  household, 
and  the  entire  comedy  of  the  foreground  shades  with  vivacious  humor 
into  a  background  of  the  London  Inn  and  private  hostel.  Here  the 
conventional  disillusionment  of  the  countryman  newly  come  to  the 
city,  is  represented  in  Dungworth  who  is  intent  upon  the  exchange  of 
his  ancestral  acres  for  a  knightship  and  the  privilege  of  association  with 
London  wits,  but  whose  brief  experience  with  the  London  brand  of  wit 
is  summed  up  in  his  concluding  comment,  ''Thus  in  the  abused  sense, 
cheating  is  called  wit."^^  The  adventures  of  Dungworth  are  true  to 
London  of  that  day.     Some  of  the  situations  are  even  commonplace, 

"  Bullen,  V.  I;  4,  p.  17-18. 
"»n:4,  p.  31. 
"Act  v.;  5. 


14  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

but  all  the  better  adapted  to  contrast  the  naivete  of  Dungworth  and 
his  man,  Dobson,  with  the  over  confidence  of  their  guide,  another  ser- 
vant who  has  seen  former  days  in  London,  but  sufficiently  in  the  past 
to   render   his   directions   embarassing. 

Though  the  language,  the  phrasing  and  the  verse  form  of  this  comedy 
belong  to  Nabbes'  early  and  cruder  style,  the  expression  of  the  play  in 
general  illustrates  the  author's  abiHty  to  adapt  himself  to  widely  differing 
characters  and  situations.  This  is  well  illustrated  in  the  extreme  contrasts 
ranging  from  the  posed  idealism  of  Artlove  and  of  Dorothy  Worthy, 
through  the  varying  shades  of  temperament  in  young  worthy.  Sir  Gener- 
ous Worthy  and  his  gay-hearted  wife,  down  to  the  mere  pleasure  seeker 
and  roisterer  of  the  comedy  which  has  in  the  naive  and  sincere  Dung- 
worthy  and  Dobson,  Nature's  compensating  rebound. 

Tottenham  Court  employs  much  the  same  types  of  character  in  Worth- 
good,  "a  Deserving  Gentleman,  in  'Changelove,'  a  fantastical  Gallant, 
in  Sam,'  a  fine  young  Gentleman  of  the  Inns  of  Court,"  and  in  James, 
"a  wild  young  Gentleman  of  the  Inns  of  Court."  The  action  opens 
with  the  in  tempted  runaway  match  of  Worthgood  and  Bellamia,  in  the 
fields  outside  of  London,  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tottenham  Court, 
a  popular  pleasure  resort.  From  this  pastoral  background  emerges 
the  leading  heroine  of  the  play,  Cecely,  the  pretty  milkmaid,  beloved  of 
Sam,  and  ultimately  proved  to  be  Cecelia,  the  lost  sister  of  Worthgood. 
The  comedy  culminates  in  the  successful  ruse  of  Cecely  who  outwits 
the  wily  gallants,  frequenters  of  Tottingham  Court.  By  a  variety  of 
perilous  but  ultimately  harmless  intrigues,  Cecely  rescues  herseK  and  her 
protege,  Bellamia,  who  in  her  elopement  has  been  separated  from 
Worthgood,  her  husband  to  be. 

Sam,  the  best  man  of  Nabbes'  three  comedies,  is  the  sanest  embodi- 
ment of  Courtly  love  as  based  upon  virtue  in  its  object. 

Mine  eye  ne're  saw  with  aptnesse  to  desire 

That  beauty  could  enthrall  m'unbounded  thoughts 

With  passionate  affection.     Yet  this  piece 

Is  absolute,  and  such  as  cannot  thoose 

But  have  a  glorious  mind.     Love  is  a  cement 

That  joynes  not  earthly  parts  alone,  but  workes 

Upon  th'  etemall  substance,  making  one 

Of  two  agreeing  souls.*° 

In  this  comedy  which  exhibits  greater  maturity  of  thought  and  of 
style  generally,  Nabbes  has  improved  upon  his  employment  of  country 

"Act  V:  4,  176. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  15 

environment  in  Covent  Garden.  In  Tottenham  Court  the  remote  roar 
and  tumult  of  London  life  are  caught  in  echoes  from  the  bridges  of  the 
Thames,  by  Worthgood  and  Bellamia,  who  else  had  lost  their  way  in 
the  as  yet  country  environs  of  the  city. 

Sure  I  heare. 
The  Bridges  cataract,  and  such  like  murmers 
As  night  and  sleepe  yield  from  a  populous  number.*^ 

In  this  play,  Nabbes  exhibits  also  a  corresponding  growth  in  abiUty  to 
select  material  and  dramatic  situation.  His  expression  has  become 
more  natural  and  facile,  hence  more  artistic.  He  gives  to  Cecilia  in  her 
character  of  milkmaid,  a  song  which  compares  not  unfavorably  with 
the  best  dramatic  lyrics  of  that  time,  even  though  it  be  a  poetical  para- 
phrase of  Thomas  Overbury's  character  of  the  milkmaid,  beloved  of  all 
later  writers,  and  especially  complimented  by  that  practical  lover  of 
nature,  Izaak  Walton,^^ 

What  a  dainty  life  the  milk-maid  leads! 

When  over  the  flowery  meads 

She  dabbles  in  the  dewe 

And  sings  to  her  cowe; 

And  feels  not  the  paine 

Of  love  or  disdain; 

And  sleeps  in  the  night  though  she  toyles  in  the  day 

And  merrily  passeth  her  time  away. 

To  the  present-day  reader  of  Tottenham  Court  it  is  true  as  of  Covent 
Garden^  that  Nabbes  appears  at  his  best  in  his  realistic  characters  and 
situations,  because  these  have  survived  to  an  extent  in  actual  life  today , 
but  his  Worthgood  and  his  high-souled  Sam  of  the  Inns  of  Court,  like 
his  Artlove  and  Dorothy  Worthy,  are  no  less  true  to  the  higher  social 
life  of  that  day  than  are  his  wild  gallants,  or  the  jealously  amorous  eld- 
erly husband  and  his  naive  countrymen.  With  his  art  of  placing  his 
courtly  lovers  and  his  heroic  though  adventurous  women  in  an  environ- 
ment of  rather  commonplace,  actual  life,  he  has  made  them  beings  of 
real  flesh  and  blood. 

The  Bride  which  was  acted  five  years  later  than  Tottenham  Court, 
has  an  increasing  directness  of  expression,  a  more  robust  characteri- 
zation, and  a  broader  range  of  dramatic  motive  approaching  the  tragic 

«Act  1,:  1,  101. 

« The  complete  Angler  2  Vols  (Vol.  I,  p.  87,  Chap.  IV,  part  1)  Boston,  1892, 
Cf.  Morley's  Character  Writings  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  (Sir  T.  Overburg). 


16  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

in  the  intrigues  of  Raven,  the  villain  of  the  play.  As  comedy,  the 
action  and  characters  resemble  more  nearly  those  of  the  play  of  London 
life  than  of  the  comedy  of  manners. 

The  action  is  complicated  at  the  start  by  the  apparent  rivalry  between 
Old  Goodlove  and  his  son,  Theophilus,  supposedly  his  foster-child,  for 
the  hand  of  the  same  young  woman;  but  the  genuine  father's  affection 
is  discovered  in  his  renunciation  of  the  bride  in  favor  of  the  son,  with 
the  explanation  that  his  own  suit  had  been  merely  a  ruse  to  further  that 
of  Theophilus.  The  father's  role  combined  with  Raven's  intrigue 
results  in  an  elopement  of  the  young  lovers,  involving  romantic  situa- 
tion and  hazardous  escapade  which  bring  all  the  characters  of  the  play 
into  dramatic  reUef.  Of  the  minor  characters,  the  consequential  Mrs. 
Ferret  and  her  hen-pecked  but  persistent  husband,  a  simple  justice  of 
the  peace,  assume  the  role  of  protecting  deities  to  the  runaways.  Mrs. 
Ferret's  well-intentioned  but  noisy  debate  with  her  husband,  together 
with  the  curious  entertainment  furnished  by  Horton,  an  antiquary, 
with  some  diversion  on  the  part  of  Kickshaw,  a  French  cook,  and  by 
Plaster,  a  humorous  surgeon,  compose  the  farcical  element  of  the  play. 
Raven's  finally  fruitless  intrigue  to  undo  Theophilus  and  to  make  him- 
self the  heir  of  Old  Goodlove,  serves  as  a  Machiavellian  foil  to  other 
parts  of  the  action. 

The  Courtier  love  of  the  two  earlier  comedies  gives  way  in  The 
Bride  to  a  somewhat  more  realistic  expression,  a  result  due  to  the  dif- 
ferent situation  in  the  apparent  rivalry  between  father  and  son.  The 
young  lovers  however  maintain  a  no  less  chivalrous  ideal  than  do  those 
of  the  two  preceding  comedies,  all  the  more  conspicuous  for  having  been 
contrasted  at  times  with  ignoble  phases  of  passion.  This  occurs  when 
the  robust  adventures  of  the  action  bring  the  Bride's  gentle  womanhood 
into  such  contact  with  the  conversation  of  roaring  blades,  that  she 
almost  doubts  the  quahty  of  affection  in  the  constant  Theophilus  Good- 
love. 

I  now  begin  t'  examine  what's  in  you 

So  taking.     An  indifferent  handsome  frame, 

The  superficies  neatly  vamisht  over. 

In  it  should  dwell  a  soul  rich  as  the  building 

Doth  promise  to  the  eyes  ...  He  that  would  be  mine, 

Must  in  his  mind  as  well  as  outward  shine.*^ 

The  Bride  like  the  two  earlier  comedies,  has  much  movement  in  its  inter- 
mingling of  country  scenes  and  London  life,  wdth  fine  colouring  and 

«  The  Bride]  Act  II;  3,  p.  28. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  17 

contrast  within  a  small  compass.  The  museum  of  Horton,  the  anti- 
quary, is  heightened  in  its  diversion  by  the  addition  of  its  eccentric  visi- 
tors, the  Ferret's  and  the  eloping  lovers  who  exhibit  the  effects  of  travel 
and  of  exposure  to  the  intrigues  of  Raven  and  his  Roaring  Blades.  The 
skilled  "Antiquary"  himself  is  not  the  least  of  his  many  wonders  on 
exhibition. 

I  must  confess  my  care 

Of  knowing  and  possessing  rarities 

Makes  me  so  skilful  I  dare  undertake 

To  pick  a  sallet  out  of  Diascorides 

Shall  feast  the  Doctor's  college  with  rare  practices 

Stranger  than  Aeson's  restitution 

To  youth  by  Magic.** 


Nor  Pliny  sir,  nor  Garner  ever  made 
Description  of  a  creature,  but  I  have 
Some  particle  thing;  and  for  antiquity 
I  do  not  store  up  under  any  Grecian; 

Your  Roman  antiques  are  but  modern  toyes 
Compared  to  them.*^ 


My  triall'Sw  such 
Of  anything  I  own,  all  the  impostors 
That  ever  made  antiquity  ridiculous 

Cannot  deceive  me.     If  I  Hght  upon 
Aught  that's  above  my  skill,  I  have  recourse, 


To  those  whose  judgment  at  the  second  view 
(If  not  the  first)  will  tell  me  what  Philosopher 
That  eyelesse,  mouthlesse  statue  is, 
And  who  the  workman  was,  though  since  his  death 
Thousands  of  years  have  been  revolv'd.** 

2 

In  the  Masque,  Nabbes  finds  the  most  appropriate  form  for  his  courtly 

theme,  the  varying  kinds  of  love,  a  theme  culminating  in  praise  of  the 

nobler  affections  based  according  to  the  Platonic  theory  upon  the  divine 

in  the  human  soul.    Of  his  three  Masques,  Microcosmus  was  the  only 

«Act.  IV;  1,  54. 
«  Act  IV;  1,  53, 
«  Act  IV;  1,  56. 


18  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBEb 

one  acted.  The  ordering  of  its  theme  as  well  as  its  regular  division 
into  acts,  taken  with  other  characteristics  make  it  similar  in  construction 
to  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  and  point  to  a  date  of  composition  near  that 
inferred  by  the  present  study,  for  that  tragedy,  both  works  probably 
antedating  Covent  Garden ."^"^ 

Microcosmus,  a  Morrall  Masque  allegorizes  the  rule  of  the  divine  in 
human  life  as  expressed  in  a  reasonable  ordering  of  the  afifections.  Nature 
and  Janus,  figures  of  eternal  Providence,  try  in  vain  to  harmonize  the 
four  elements  for  man's  creation  until  Nature  appeals  to  Love  as  the 
harmonizing  and  creative  power  of  the  Universe.  Physander,  the  newly 
created  man,  is  united  by  Nature  and  Love  to  Bellamima  the  Soul,  who 
is  attended  by  the  genii  of  good  and  of  evil.  From  this  point  until  near 
the  close  of  the  play,  the  allegorical  dominates  to  the  extent  of  a  near 
return  in  content  and  form,  to  the  prodigal  idea  in  the  late  morality 
play,  such  as  Mundus  et  Infans,  1523,  and  Lusty  Juventus}^  There 
is  also  much  in  Microcosmus  that  suggests  a  near  acquaintance  on  the 
part  of  Nabbes,  with  the  moralized  Terentian  dialogues  of  Hroswitha 
a  Saxon  priestess  of  the  tenth  century. 

Physander  falls  a  prey  to  sensuality  and  is  reduced  to  dispair,  at 
which  crisis  he  is  rescued  by  the  constant  Bellamina.  He  is  placed 
under  the  discipHne  of  Temperance  who  restores  him  with  the  aid  of 
Fortitude,  Justice  and  Prudence,  through  a  regimen  of  strict  frugahty. 

Let  the  earth  be  his  bed;  this  rock  be  his  pillow; 

His  curtains  heaven;  the  murmur  of  this  water 

Instead  of  music,  charm  him  into  sleepe, 

And  for  the  cates  which  gluttony  invents 

To  make  it  call'd  an  art,  confected  juice 

Of  Pontick  nuts,  and  Idumean  palmes 

Candy'd  with  Ebosian  sugar,  lampreys  guts 

Fetcht  from  Carpathian  straights,  and  such  like 

Wantonness.     Let  him  eat  sparingly  of  what  the  earth 

Produceth  freely,  or  is,  where  'tis  barren, 

Enforct  by  industrye. 

In  the  bright  robes  of  immortalitye. 

.  .  .  Rewards  will  only  crowne 
The  end  of  a  well  prosecuted  good. 
Philosophy,  religion,  solitude, 

*'"'  Microcosmus,  a  Morrall  Maske,  "Presented  (no  date)  with  generall  liking  at 
the  private  house  in  Salisbury  Court.  ..."     Printed  1637. 

"  1523,  by  Wynkin  de  Worde.  Lusty  Juventus,  by  R.  Wever.  See  Hazlitt- 
Dodsley,  I-II,  1574. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  19 

And  labour  waite  on  Temperance,  in  these, 
Desire  is  bounded;  they  instruct  the  mind's 
And  bodie's  actions.     'Tis  lascivious  ease 
That  gives  the  first  beginning  to  all  ills."*' 

Physander's  reception  of  Prudence  is  an  example  of  the  spirit  in  which 
he  accepts  the  entire  heroic  regimen. 

"l  do  embrace  thy  fellowship, 
Prudence,  thou  virtue  of  the  mind,  by  which 
We  do  consult  of  all  that's  good  or  evill 
Conducing  to  felicity.     Direct 
My  thoughts  and  actions  by  the  rule  of  reason, 
Teach  me  contempt  of  all  inferior  vanitie^; 
Pride  in  a  marble  portall  guilded  o're; 
Assyrian  carpets;  chayres  of  ivory; 
The  luxury  of  a  stupendious  house; 
Garments  perfum'd;  ghummes  valu'd  not  for  use. 
But  needlesse  ornament;  a  sumptious  table. 
And  all  the  baytes  of  sense.^" 

The  action  closes  with  a  return  to  the  form  of  the  Masque,  Love  sur- 
rounded by  the  four  Stoic  virtues  named  above,  enthrone  and  crown 
Physander  and  Bellamina,  joint  sovereigns  of  an  Elysium  whose 
*'Elysii  incolae"  are  gloriously  habited  and  alike. 

Welcome,  welcome  happy  payre. 

To  these  abodes,  where  spicie  ayre 

Breathes  perfumes,  and  every  sense 

Doth  find  his  objects  excellence. 

Where's  no  heate,  nor  cold  extreme; 

No  Winter's  ice,  nor  summer's  scorching  beame, 

Where's  no  sun,  yet  never  night, 

Day  always  springing  from  etemall  light. 

A  chorus  completes  the  static  perfection  of  this  classical  stage  Elysium. 

All  mortall  sufferings  layd  aside, 
Here  in  endlesse  blisse  abide.*^ 

The  songs  of  Microcosmus  like  those  of  his  plays  in  general,  exhibit  a 
lyric  talent  for  Nabbes  beyond  that  displayed  in  his  miscellaneous  poems, 
a  result  somewhat  at  variance  with  the  fact  that  the  didactic  themes 
of  his  masques  are  not  highly  conducive  to  lyric  art.  The  term,  hymnic, 
perhaps  best  describes  the  melody  of  the  songs  of  Misrocosmus. 

"Microcosmus  IV,  pp.  202-204,  Vol.  II,  Bullen. 
"  Microcosmus  V,  p.  205,  Vol.  II,  Bullen. 
"Act  v.:  p.  218,  Bullen,  Vol.  II. 


20  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

For  an  authoritative  description  of  the  aim  both  artistic  and  ethical 
in  this  masque  of  Nabbes,  the  Hnes  prefixed  by  his  unidentified  friend, 
WiU   CuFaude,  are  best. 

Seeing  thy  Microcosmus  I  began 
To  contemplate  the  parts  that  make  up  man, 
A  little  World.     I  found  each  Morall  right : 
All  was  instruction  mingled  with  delight, 
Nor  are  thine  like  those  poets'  looser  rimes 
That  waste  upon  the  humours  of  the  times! 
But  thou  doth  make  by  thy  poetick  rage 
,  A  schoole  of  Virtue  of  a  common  Stage. 
Me  thinks  the  ghosts  of  Stoicks  vexe  to  see 
Their  doctrine  in  a  masque  unmasked  by  thee, 
Thou  mak'st  it  to  be  exprest  by  action  more, 
Than  was  contained  in  all  their  Books  before. 

The  Springs  Glory  carries  the  favorite  theme  of  Nabbes',  that  of 
Temperance  centering  in  the  courtly  topic  of  the  day: 

Love  ought  to  be  Platonick  and  Divine 
Such  as  is  only  kindled  and  doth  shine 
With  beames  that  may  all  dark  effects  controule 
In  the  refined  parts  of  the  glorious  soul.^^ 

In  this  masque  Cyprean  Venus,  protectress  of  perfect  love,  contests  for 
honors  above  Ceres  and  Bacchus  whom  she  decries  as  ministering  wholly 
to  the  senses.  The  debate  is  referred  for  decision  to  Christmas  and 
Shrovetide,  who  contend  in  antemasque  for  supremacy  in  judgment. 
Shrovetide  as  victor  favors  Ceres  and  Bacchus;  but  Venus  gains  a  new 
champion  in  Lean  Lent  who  in  contest  with  Christmas  furnishes  another 
antemasque.  Lent  is  finally  supported  by  such  harbingers  of  Spring 
as  budding  trees,  and  greening  meadows  where  beggars  dance  to  bagpipe 
and  song.  Spring  enters  as  judge  and  harmonizer  of  discord.  She 
excludes  Bacchus  and  reconciles  Ceres  and  Venus  as  complementary  in 
Nature's  scheme. 

Venus  Deity 
Is  powerful  over  all;  and  Ceres  gives 
Each  that  hath  being,  that  by  which  he  lives, 
Yet  many  times  excesse  prevents  the  end  .  .  . 
Of  pure  intention;  and  extremes  extend 
Their  powers  to  undoe  those  acts  are  free 
In  their  own  natures  from  impuritie. 


"P.  28,  Bullen,  V.  2.     Spring's  Glory,  Pr.   1639. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  21 

In  me  let  Temperance  teach  you  to  apply 
Things  to  their  best  ends;  and  to  rectifye 
All  motions  that  intend  effects  beside 
What  may  run  cleere  and  curant  with  the  tide 
Of  purest  love:    In  v/hich  let  all  your  jarres 
Be  reconcil'd  and  finish  your  steme  Warres.^' 

The  song  and  chorus  with  which  Spring  is  ushered  in,  is  a  brilliant 
bit  of  seventeenth  century  pastoral,  with  some  good  phrasing  that  again 
recalls  Spenser  in  his  nearest  approach  to  nature. 

See,  see  a  Metamorphosis, 

The  late  Gray  Field  now  verdant  is, 

The  son  with  warme  beames  glads  the  earth, 

And  to  the  springing  flowers 

He  gives  a  new  and  lively  birth 

By  th'  ayde  of  gentle  showers. 

The  lambes  no  longer  bleate  for  cold, 

Nor  cry  for  succour  from  the  old : 

But  friske  and  play  with  confidence 

Like  emblems  of  true  innocence. 

The  quatrain  of  the  chorus: 

The  cheerfull  birds  their  voyces  straine. 
The  Cuckoo's  hoarse  for  want  of  raine, 
The  Nightingale  doth  sweetly  sing 
To  welcome  in  the  joyfuU  spring. 

And  Spring's  descriptive  lines 

The  Wind's  not  rugged  now,  but  calme  and  fayre, 
Sweepe  flowery  Gardens,  and  perfume  the  ayre. 
The  Wood's  shrill  choristers  (whose  frozen  throtes 
Late  wanted  motion)  now  hath  found  their  notes; 
Strayning  their  little  organes  to  sound  high, 
And  teach  men  art  from  Nature's  harmony. 

in  their  rugged  melody  recall  that  of  the  best  lines  of  The  Shepherd's 
Calendar. 

^^A  Presentation  intended  for  the  Prince  his  Highness,  on  his  birthday, 
May  29,  1638,  annually  celebrated,"  is  a  wreath  of  royal  praise  artfully 
wrought,  with  time  as  the  initiator  of  the  masque.  The  young  Prince 
is  crowned  with  the  congratulation  of  May  who  adjudges  that  the 
" Morisk-dance, "  her  own  peculiar  past-time  is  "fitter  for  course  ones 
and   the   multitude," 

"  P.  235.    Spring's  Glory,  Pr.  1639. 


22  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

I  have  none  that  are 

Worthy  his  high  acceptance :    they  are  far 
Inferiour  to  the  things  that  should  set  forth 
The  fullness  of  his  glory  and  his  worth. 

This  Masque  carries  humorous  comment  upon  almanac  impostors  whom 
time  and  fairweather  undertake  to  put  out  of  business,  but  happily  do 
not  succeed  until  after  the  almanac  makers  transformed  into  "horned 
satyres"  by  the  ale  they  drink  to  the  prince's  health,  have  performed  in 
antemasque.  After  their  dance  in  which  the  horns  disappear  and  their 
wonted  form  is  regained,  Time  reappears  to  drive  away  the  almanac 
makers  and  to  bring  in  May  attended  by  Flora  and  Vertumnus.  Amid 
a  song  of  birds  in  "a  glorious  expression  of  Elysium,"  appear  the  shades 
of  the  former  Eight  Princes  of  Wales, 

.  .  .  whose  histories 
Shall  be  instruction,  and  their  memories 
Present  Heroick  actions  to  their  mind, 
Their  vertues  he  shall  strictly  imitate 
And  make  those  vertues  awfull  over  fate. 

The  Princes  are  saluted  by  the  masquers  who  place  themselves  in  a 
figure  for  the  dance  and  song  which  with  Time's  epilogue  and  the  chorus 
complete  the  masque. 

From  th'  earth  where  honour  long  hath  slept, 

And  noblest  dust  as  treasure  kept, 

By  hallowing  clay  hath  made  it  shine 

More  glorious  than  an  Indian  mine, 

These  brave  Heroick  shadowes  come 

To  sport  in  this  Elysium. 

From  th'  Ayre,  or  from  the  Spheares  above 

As  they  in  perfect  concord  move, 

Let  Musick  sound,  and  such  as  may 

Equall  his  harpe  that  rules  the  day. 

Thus  do  we  welcome  you  tonight 

Unto  our  mansion  of  delight. 

The  royal  compliment  is  completed  in  the  chorus. 

For  theirs  and  this  do  both  agree 
In  all  but  the  Etemitie. 


3 
As  a  tragic  dramatist,  Nabbes  has  among  his  critics,  lower  rank 
than  as  a  writer  of  masques  and  of  comedy.    Of  his   two  tragedies, 
Hannibal  and  Scipio,  and  The  Unfortunate  Mother,  the  latter  is  considered 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  23 

the  inferior,  by  all  critics  vvdth  the  single  exception  of  Genest.  Though 
this  critic  regards  it  as  a  very  good  play,  he  possibly  reiterates  the  favor- 
able comment  of  certain  critics  contemporary  with  Nabbes."  The 
tone  of  latter  day  criticism  may  be  summed  up  in  Bullen's,  ''It  is  a  play 
in  five  acts  and  written  in  verse,  and  there  is  really  nothing  more  to  say. 
I  find  it  impossible  to  feel  the  slightest  interest  in  any  of  the  characters .^^ 
The  scene  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother  is  the  court  of  Ferrara.  The 
action  is  developed  through  the  MachiaveUian  intrigue  of  the  prime 
minister,  Corvino,  who  has  undertaken  to  shield  the  imperilled  reputa- 
tion of  the  late  Duke  and  his  Duchess,  now  the  Dowager,  Infelice,  by 
preserving  with  them  a  secret  involving  the  destiny  of  the  three  young 
princes  two  of  whom  Corvino  has  brought  up  as  his  own  sons.  Corvino's 
intrigue  is  supplemented  by  that  of  a  crone,  Cardente,  and  the  two 
dominate  the  action  to  its  bitter  ending,  involving  the  miserable  death  of 
the  Duchess  and  her  innocent  but  deluded  children.  After  all  the 
principal  characters  of  the  play  have  fallen  either  by  the  sword  or  by 
poison  or  else  have  died  of  grief,  and  Corvino  has  been  sentenced  to 
execution,  Macario,  the  young  Duke  who  succeeds  to  the  rule,  pronounces 
in  the  closing  lines  of  the  tragedy,  the  moral  already  appalingly  apparent. 

"Lust  and  ambition  are  two  means  of  evils, 
That  practis'd  by  their  owners  make  them  devills." 

The  simple  action  which  follows  rigidly  the  misdirected  villany  of  Cor- 
vino is  unrelieved  by  pathos  even  in  those  who  suffer  most,  and  in  effect,  it 
repels  the  reader.  That  Nabbes  over-reached  in  a  carefully  planned 
theory  for  his  tragedy  is  proved  by  the  uniformly  excellent  style  of  the 
piece,  by  the  tone  of  his  friendly  critics  named  above,  and  by  the  Proeme 
to  the  Reader.  In  the  dedication  of  the  printed  tragedy  to  Richard 
Braithwaite  Esquire,  the  author  says  ...  "I  can  accuse  myselfe  of 
no  errour  in  it  more  than  a  nice  curiosity  which  notwithstanding  I  must 
boast  to  be  without  a  precedent  in  the  method;  where  I  have  denied 
myself  much  Uberty  that  may  be  allow'd  a  Poet  from  old  example,  and 
new  establishh't  custome."  Part  of  the  author's  "nice  curiosity"  in 
the  method  consists  in  his  rigid  adherence  to  the  unities.  Even  his 
unity  of  action  centers  too  rigidly  in  Corvino's  intrigue,  designed  to 
preserve  the  secret  of  the  Duchess  and  to  serve  thereby  his  own  ambition. 
There  is  need  of  greater  elaboration  of  character,  situation  and  scene  to 
secure  contrast  and  shading  for  the  harsh  repulsiveness  of  the  double 

"See  above,  p.  13. 
"  Introd.  p.  xvii,  V.  I. 


24  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

villany  of  Corvino  and  his  instrument  Cardente.  The  Proeme  to  the 
Reader  promises  a  precision  in  observing  the  unities,  by  exclusion  of 
bombast,  avoidance  of  obscurity  on  the  one  hand  and  of  over  detail  on 
the  other,  leaving  nothing  to  be  inferred  or  to  be  revealed  at  the  close. 
The  author  congratulates  himself  upon  "a  constant  scene  of  two 
hours'  action, "  and  the  play  justifies  the  claim.^^  The  place  is  unchanged 
throughout :  The  first  act  is  in  the  presence;  the  second  is  in  the  chamber 
of  the  Duchess;  the  third  is  in  the  presence;  the  fourth  takes  place  in  the 
gallery;  the  fifth,  in  the  grove;  all  in  and  around  the  palace  at  Ferrara. 
The  entire  action  is  brought  within  the  space  of  the  day  upon  which  it 
opens.  Despite  his  observance  of  strict  method  and  avoidance  of 
traditional  dramatic  sins,  the  author  anticipates  detraction: 

Here  are  no  bombast  raptures  swelling  high, 
To  plucke  Jove  and  the  rest  down  from  the  sky: 
Here  is  no  sense  that  must  by  thee  be  scann'd 
Before  thou  canst  the  meaning  understand; 
No  politician  tells  his  plots  unto 
Those  in  the  Pit,  and  what  he  means  to  do; 
But  now  methinks  I  heare  some  Critick  say, 
All  those  left  out  there's  nothing  in  the  play.^^ 

Whether  consciously  or  not  on  BuUen's  part,  his  comment  upon  The 
Unfortunate  Mother  paraphrases  the  author's  expected  criticism:  so 
prone  have  been  the  critics  of  Nabbes  to  repeat  his   own  comment. 


IV 

The  Tragedy,  "Hannibal  and  Scipio" 
It  is  apparent  that  in  The  Unfortunate  Mother,  Nabbes  missed  the 
artistic  economy  of  strict  method  in  his  effort  to  avoid  faults  incident 
to  the  loose  construction  of  his  first  tragedy  Hannibal  and  Scipio.  It 
seems  probable  that  a  contemporary  stickler  for  the  unities  had  objected 
to  the  frequent  change  of  place  in  Hannibal  and  Scipio  if  not  also  to 
qualities  that  bordered  upon  bombast.  Baker's  Companion  to  the  Play 
House,  published  after  the  unities  had  been  accepted  in  England  as 
dramatic  essentials,  and  fully  a  century  and  a  quarter  after  Hannibal 
and  Scipio  had  been  acted,  has  the  following  criticism  of  this  tragedy. 
"The  unity  of  place  is  most  excessively  broken  in  upon,  the  scene  of  the 

"  "A  constant  scene:  The  business  it  intended.  /The  two  hours  time  of  action 
comprehended." 

"  Bullen  V,  II,  p.  87. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  25 

first  act  lying  in  Capua,  of  the  second,  at  the  Court  of  Syphax,  of  the 
third,  at  Utica,  of  the  fourth,  at  Carthage,  and  of  the  fifth,  in  Bythinia.  "^^ 
Baker  could  have  made  a  similar  comment  upon  its  violation  of  the 
unity  of  time,  though  not  so  justly,  of  lack  in  unity  of  action.  Histori- 
cally, there  are  nine  years  between  the  opening  of  the  action  at  Capua, 
and  that  of  the  second  act  at  Cirta.  The  third  act  at  Utica  takes  place 
two  years  later;  the  fourth  at  Carthage  with  the  battle  of  Zama,  takes 
place  two  years  later  still.  From  Zama  to  Hannibal's  death  at  the  Court 
of  Prussias,  in  Bythinia,  about  nineteen  more  years  elapse.^^  This  des- 
cription of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  proves  sufficiently  that  it  follows  the 
extreme  in  construction  opposite  to  that  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother. 
These  two  extremes  are  natural  to  a  beginner  in  the  writing  of  Tragedy. 
There  is  no  desire  to  claim  for  Nabbes  more  dramatic  talent  than  was 
his  own,  but  judging  from  his  development  in  the  construction  of  Comedy, 
between  Covent  Garden  and  The  Bride,  and  the  similar  rate  of  improve- 
ment in  the  writing  of  his  three  masques,  a  third  tragedy  might  have  shown 
better  results  had  the  opportunity  to  write  another  been  given  him  in 
the  brief  years  following  the  printing  of  The  Unfortunate  Mother,  after 
which  we  hear  no  more  of  him.  Nabbes  had  not  Webster's  genius  and 
probably  neither  the  talent  of  Shirley  nor  that  of  Ford;  but  the  greater 
tragedies  of  these  men,  two  at  most  for  each,  were  as  springs  in  a  desert 
where  for  number  and  for  aridity  the  comedies  of  the  minor  dramatists 
of  the  age  are  as  the  sands.  Tragedy  had  seen  its  day,  popularly  con- 
sidered, and  a  dramatist  must  have  been  not  only  serious-minded,  but 
also  heroic  to  undertake  the  ungrateful  task  of  writing  tragedy,  at  that 
late  day  of  the  old  drama. 

From  the  characteristics  given  above,  the  tragedy  Hannibal  and 
Scipio  may  be  classed  with  plays  on  history  and  classical  myth,  a  type 
having  numerous  and  varied  examples  in  the  earlier  Elizabethan  drama.^'^ 
This  type  has  much  resemblance  to  the  early  chronicle  play,  in  its  loose- 
ness of  structure,  in  its  epic  quality  of  narrative,  as  well  as  in  its  admit- 
ting legend  and  romantic  incident.  With  all  its  disregard,  however, 
for  the  conventional  unities  of  time  and  place,  Hannibal  and  Scipio  is 
artistically  unified  through  a  species  of  local  coloring  which  in  dramatic 
effect  far  exceeds  a  strict  adherence  to  chronology  and  locahty,  or  even 
to  fact  in  character  and  event.  The  attention  to  local  coloring  and  at- 
mosphere in  the  tragedy  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  recalls  to  an  extent 

5*  Baker's  Companion  to  the  Play  House,  London,  1764  V.  I. 
"  See  Momson,  Hist,  of  Rome,  V.  II,  Ch's  4,  5,  6. 
«o  Cf.  Schelling,  Elizab.  Dr.  V,  II,  pp.  45,  46,  137. 


26  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

Jonson's  method  in  tragedy;  but  Jonson's  local  coloring  is  secured  through 
strict  historical  accuracy,  whereas  the  type  of  play  to  which  Hannibal 
and  Scipio  belongs,  mingles  myth  and  fact  indiscriminately.  More- 
over, in  Hannibal  and  Scipio  the  characters  and  action  take  substance 
and  form  largely  from  the  philosophy  of  life  which  Hannibal  and  Scipio 
respectively  are  reputed  to  have  held.  This  romantic  employment  of 
myth  and  local  coloring  with  theories  of  conduct,  are  interdependent 
in  the  play.  For  example,  the  opening  scene  at  Capua  where  legend 
holds  that  Hannibal  fell  in  love  with  a  lady  of  Salapia  and  that  his 
soldiers  were  here  made  effeminate  with  idle  pleasures,  is  not  only 
definitely,  but  also  dramatically  located  by  textual  allusion  to 
Massicus,  the  famous  Campanian  wine,  as  well  as  by  mention  of  im- 
ported luxuries  in  which  Capua  of  all  ItaUan  towns  indulged  the  most.^^ 
Again,  allusions  drawn  from  the  entire  range  of  the  Cytherean  myth 
tone  the  opening  scenes  to  an  extreme  of  sensuous  beauty  loved  by  the 
Capuans,  and  to  which  the  more  frugal  Romans  of  that  period  attri- 
buted the  beginning  of  Hannibal's  decline  and  of  Scipio's  ascendency .^^ 
The  rivalry  between  Hannibal  nurtured  in  the  nature-worship  of  ancient 
Carthage,  and  Scipio  disciplined  in  the  Stoic  philosophy,  and  represen- 
tative of  Rome's  early  prowess,  has  accentuation  in  environment  as 
background  for  character  contrast. 

The  dramatist's  avowed  deviation  from  historical  record  in  certain 
situations  "to  fit  the  stage"  and  "scene,"  is  in  harmony  with  the  same 
emphasis  upon  environment  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  play.^^  For 
example,  the  deviation  from  record  in  bringing  Hannibal  instead  of 
Hasdrubal,  to  the  chance  meeting  with  Scipio  at  the  court  of  Syphax  in 
Cirta,  contributes  the  more  to  dramatic  unity  that  it  is  localized  by 
textual  allusion  to  Cirta's  geographical  bearings  by  sea  from  Spain  where 
the  early  exploits  of  the  two  generals  had  succeeded  each  other  in  the 
rivalry  between  Carthage  and  Rome.^^  In  the  meeting  at  Cirta,  Hanni- 
bal's craft  and  the  narrow  range  of  his  experience  bound  up  as  it  is  with 
his  hatred  of  Rome,  are  contrasted  with  the  frank  and  open  dealing  of 
the  many-sided  mind  of  Scipio.  Hannibal  appHes  here  even  his  most 
personal  experience,  his  love  for  the  Salapian  lady,  to  the  sole  aim  of 
his  existence,  to  injure  Rome. 

"Q.  A.  I,  1  &  2. 

"Cf.  Cicero,  De  Lege  ^gmm,  II,  35  ".  .  .  deinde  ea  luxuries,  quae  ipsum  Hanni- 
balem,  armis  etiam  turn  invictum,  voluptate  vicit." 
«3Cf.  Prologue,  Q.  U.  15-17. 
"Q.  II:  3. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  27 

At  the  climax  of  Hannibal's  intrigue  to  outwit  Scipio  and  attach 
Syphax  to  Carthage,  a  messenger  announces  the  approach  of  a  ship 
which  brings  the  beautiful  Carthaginian  princess,  Sophonisba,  to  the 
court  of  Syphax.  The  stately  ship  and  its  burden  recall  the  rivalry 
between  Rome  and  Carthage  for  the  sea,  and  emphasizes  Hannibal's 
phrase,  "The  not  to  be  resisted  power  of  beauty,"  connecting  his  own 
experience  at  Capua  with  Sophonisba's  patriotic  sacrifice  throughout 
her  role  in  the  play,  as  destined  by  hereditary  environment.®^  Wherever 
Sophonisba  appears  in  the  play  she  carries  the  suggestion  of  mingled 
cults  of  rival  Roman  and  Carthaginian  deities,  but  with  the  assured 
sense  of  her  innate  devotion  to  her  ancestral  gods  of  Carthage.  This 
is  shown  in  the  first  thought  of  Syphax  upon  her  arrival. 

Receive  her  with  religious  ceremony, 
Perfume  the  ayre  with  incense  richer  then 
The  Phoenix  funerall  pile.    Let  harmony 
Breath  out  her  soule  at  everj'-  artist's  touch, 
Cover  the  pavement  which  her  steps  must  hallow 
With  Persian  Tapestrie."* 

Where  in  the  climax  of  her  role,  Sophonisba  takes  poison  to  escape 
Scipio's  triumph,  her  dialogue  with  Massanissa  combines  allusion  to 
Phoenician  nature-worship  with  a  heroism  rivalling  that  of  the  stoic 
in  her  refusal  of  Massanissa's  prayer  to  Aesculapius,  and  in  sustaining 
her  death  in  self-immolation  on  the  altar  of  her  country,  Carthage. 

Why  doth  Massanissa 
Invoke  vaine  aide?    The  gods  are  merciful! 
In  their  denying  it:    and  'tis  best  justice 

That  I  should  dye 

The  end,  my  countrie's  good,  and  the  first  love 
I  bore  thee  Massanissa,  Now  let  Scipio 
Boast  of  his  conquest;  Sophonisba  is 
Her  owne  subverter." 

The  actions  at  Utica  and  at  Carthage,  between  Syphax  for  Carthage 
and  Massanissa  for  Rome,  narrated  by  Lelius  to  Scipio,  and  by  another 
messenger  to  the  Carthaginian  Senate,  are  more  definitely  localized  in 
following  closely  the  historical  record.  The  leaders  in  these  battles 
are  but  instruments  of  the  respective  commanders,  Hannibal  and  Scipio 
in  whom  the  results  of  the  conflict  increasingly  center;  the  purpose  from 

«Q.  11.  823,  II;5. 

wQ.  11.  702-707,  11:5. 

"Q.  11.  1171-1200,  A.  111:4. 


28  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

the  beginning  of  the  play  having  been  to  bring  the  two  heroes  into  con- 
trast in  every  scene.  The  messenger's  description  of  the  meeting  of 
Hannibal  and  Scipio  at  Zama,  before  the  battle,  shows  them  equally 
matched  for  one  brief  moment, 

Before  the  battaile  joyn'd 
The  world's  two  Captaines  (for  besides  them  none 
Merits  the  name  in  equall  competition) 
Mett  to  have  conference :  where  for  a  space 
They  stood  astonish't  at  each  others  presence, 
And  like  two  comets  tilting  in  the  ayre 
'Gainst  one  another,  shot  prodigious  flame 
From  cither's  eyes;  and  with  a  counter  change 
Of  fierce  and  angry  lookes  seem'ed  to  begin 
An  eagre  fight :  till  Hanniball  broke  silence 
And  mov'd  a  peace:  which  Scipio  .  .  .  refused." 

From  this  point  Rome  in  the  personality  of  Scipio,  controls  the  action 
of  the  tragedy.  Rome's  right  to  spoils  of  war,  urged  by  Scipio,  forces 
Massanissa  to  surrender  Sophonisba,  though  the  vow  he  had  made  not 
to  deliver  her  to  Roman  triumph,  is  still  to  him  sacred  as  the  altars  of 
his  Numidian  gods.  After  Sophonisba's  death,  Scipio  re-estabhshes 
Massanissa's  shaken  confidence  by  an  act  of  self-conquest  in  restoring 
a  beautiful  Spanish  captive  to  her  betrothed  husband.^^  When  the 
Carthaginian  senate  shields  itself  under  the  stigma  of  its  banishment 
of  Hannibal,  Scipio  exhibits  his  perfect  justice  in  censuring  such  ingrati- 
tude. 

The  action  in  Bithinia  which  closes  the  tragedy,  all  but  resolves 
localization  as  well  as  chronology  into  the  one  dramatic  unity  of  the 
typical  morality  play,  that  of  character  contrast.  Scipio  stands  here 
no  longer  for  the  promise  of  the  young  Roman  Repubhc;  he  has  estab- 
Ushed  her  supremacy.  His  brief  debate  with  Hannibal  upon  the  com- 
parative merits  of  commanders,  relegates  their  martial  deeds  to  the  past 
with  those  of  Alexander  and  Pyrrhus.^^  They  are  now  contrasted  as 
rival  types  of  manhood,  and  theirs  is  a  contest  between  principles  for 
the  conduct  of  life,  in  which  Scipio  is  again  to  gain  in  Hannibal's  loss. 
Scipio  the  man,  is  a  product  of  the  Stoic  philosophy  exhibited  in  Xeno- 
phon's  hero-romance,  Cyropedia;  Hannibal  the  man,  is  the  product  of  a 
nature  cult  discipUned  in  the  fortunes  of  war. 

•8  Q.  1298-1310,  A.  rV:l. 
"Q.  1180-1200,  A  111:4. 
70  Q.  V.:2  11.  1899-1905. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  29 

Scip.  From    this    Paedia 

I    have    been    truly    morall;    th'    institutions 
Have    beene    my    guides    in    every    action 
Which    I    did    either    as    a    man,    or    Prince, 
Cyrus    himselfe,    to    whom    they    were    directed, 
Pursu'd    them    not    so    strictly    as    I    have. 

Man 

From  outward  accidents  should  not  derive 
The  knowledge  of  himselfe:    for  so  hee's  made 
The  creature  of  beginnings  over  which 
His  vertue  may  command:    Fortime  and  chance. 
When  he  by  speculation  hath  inform'd 
His  divine  part  hee's  perfect;  and  'till  then 
But  a  rough  matter,  onely  capable 
Of  better  forme.     It  oft  begets  my  wonder 
That  thou  a  rude  Barbarian,  ignorant 
Of  all  art,  but  of  Warres,  which  custome  onely 
Hath  (being  joined  to  thy  first  nature)  taught  thee, 
Shouldst  know  so  much  of  man.^^ 
Han.  I  study  man 

Better  from  practice  than  thou  canst  from  books, 
Thy  learning's  but  opinion,  mine  knowne  truth; 
Subject  to  no  grosse  errours,  such  as  cannot 
Be  reconcil'd  but  by  production 
Of  new  and  greater.     Did  thy  learned  Masters 
Of  arts,  with  whom  even  arm'd  thou  hast  converst 
Before  a  battayle  joyn'd  (if  fame  speak  truth) 
By  their  instructions  showe  thee  surer  wayes 
To  victory,  than  Fortune  joyn'd  to  valour, 
And  a  full  strength  of  men. 

Scip.    That  which  consists. 

In  action  only,  and  th'  event  depends 
Upon  no  certain  rule  demonstrative. 
Is  fates  not  reasons.'^ 

Except  for  the  remonstrance  of  Prusias  that  the  heroes  are  in  a  court 
rather  than  in  a  "Parliament  of  souldiers,"  the  location  might  better 
have  been  a  Senecan  lecture  hall  than  Bythinia  to  which  by  a  skillful 
abridgement  of  history,  the  meeting-place  of  the  heroes  has  been  changed 
from  the  court  of  Antiochus,  at  Ephesus. 

The  episode  described  above  and  the  ensuing  debate  regarding  Hanni- 
bal's safety,  ending  in  his  self-inflicted  death  by  poison,  have  the  struc- 
ture of  tragic  scenes  in  the  early  plays  of  Classical  history  and,  in  a 
measure  make,  this  last  act  a  sort  of  sequel  play  to  the  first  four  acts. 

"Q.  U.  1859-1889,  A.  V:2. 
"Q.  U.  1957  A.  V,  last  scene. 


30  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

From  a  strictly  dramatic  consideration,  the  first  four  acts  have  furnished 
all  that  is  essential  to  a  tragedy.  The  play  has  opened  in  regular  manner 
at  a  critical  point  in  the  careers  of  the  heroes;  Hannibal  at  the  summit 
of  Fortune's  wheel  after  his  victory  at  Cannae  too  great  to  be  repeated 
in  results,  is  surrounded  by  the  temptations  of  Capua;  whereas  Scipio, 
the  new  Roman  commander  and  Consul,  in  the  first  flush  of  victory  at 
New  Carthage  and  Saguntum,  sees  Fortune  in  the  ascendant.  The 
tragic  point  in  Hannibal's  character  is  that  typical  of  great  men.  With 
Hannibal  it  consisted  in  an  error  of  judgment  in  delaying  at  Capua 
instead  of  following  up  his  victory;  but  the  dramatist  has  taken  care 
that  this  error  should  not  decline  to  vice.  Hannibal's  momentary  deflec- 
tion from  valor  to  love  is  differentiated  from  that  of  his  subordinates 
in  the  greater  nobility  of  soul  in  Hannibal,  and  in  the  Salapian  gentle- 
woman who  recalls  to  him  the  valorous  deeds  which  have  won  her  admira- 
tion. Hannibal's  illusion  was  dispelled  in  its  beginning  by  the  messen- 
ger's report  of  Scipio's  victory  in  Spain  and  followed  immediately  by 
Bomilcar's  message  for  the  army's  recall  to  Carthage.  The  action  has 
had  tragic  climax  not  only  in  Hannibal's  defeat  at  Zama,  but  also  in 
the  death  of  Sophonisba  whose  charm  Hannibal,  profiting  by  his  own 
experience  at  Capua,  had  used  to  regain  the  lost  prestige  of  Carthage. 
Sophonisba's  influence  for  Carthage  justifies  Scipio's  valuation  of  her 
after  her  death. 

In  that  weake  woman 
Halfe  Carthage's  strength  is  gone.'' 

Nabbes'  didacticism  however  is  not  wholly  responsible  for  the  fifth 
act  in  which  to  set  forth  Hannibal's  and  Scipio's  character-contest. 
For  this  the  rambhng  construction  of  the  early  historical  play  is  partly 
responsible,  as  well  as  early  EngHsh  stage  tradition  which  sealed  its 
tragedy  abundantly  with  death.  Scfpio  therefore  closes  the  fourth  act 
by  initiating  the  motive  for  the  last  act  and  final  catastrophe  in  the  death 
of  Hannibal. 

Wee'l  hunt  this  Affrick  Lion 

Into  a  stronger  toyle.     Fame  shall  waite  on  us 

Till  we  have  loaded  her,  and  that  she  see 

Our  triumph  in  his  tragedy."^ 

Scipio's  change  of  attitude  to  a  more  conciliatory  tone  in  the  last  act  is 
doubtless  due  to  the  dramatist's  desire  to  put  the  Roman  hero  in  the 
light  of  a  still  greater  triumph  of  self-conquest: 

"Q.  1245-46.    A.  III:v. 
7*Q.  11.  1625-78,  A.  IV  :5. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  31 

Hannibal  I  know 
Hath  put  off  the  rough  habit  which  his  mind 
Was  lately  wrapt  in :    and  since  chance  hath  made  him 
The  subject  of  my  conquest,  in  the  peace 
Rome  hath  allow'd  his  country  (the  conditions 
Being  strictly  kept)  all  past  contentions 
Must  lose  their  memory,  and  after  strifes 
Be  stifled  in  their  first  birth  by  prevention. 
I  would  acknowledge  my  ambition 
Bore  my  thoughts  higher  than  my  countries  good, 
Or  her  enlargement  only.     Had  my  fortune 
Captiv'd  the  person  of  great  Hannibal, 
JMy  triumph  should  out-vye  all  the  rich  pomps 
That  ever  made  Rome  shine. ^^ 

Hannibal  has  reason  to  doubt  Scipio's  assurance  for  his  safety,  especially 
when  informed  that  Roman  soldiers  surround  his  retreat.  The  situa- 
tion is  perhaps  more  dramatic  in  leaving  Hannibal's  safety  a  problem 
and  thus  truer  to  life.  The  dramatist's  j&dehty  to  the  historical  Roman 
attitude  toward  Hannibal,  as  well  as  his  fidelity  to  Hannibal's  character, 
portrays  the  hero  to  the  last  an  enemy  to  Rome,  firm  in  conviction  of 
Scipio's  intent  to  betray  him,  and,  as  Scipio  reminds  him,  possibly 
forging  by  this  act  of  mental  injustice,  fetters  for  his  own  spiritual  life. 
This  subtle  suggestion  of  a  spiritual  tragedy  completing  Hannibal's 
tragedy  of  death,  gives  to  his  character,  devoted  as  it  has  been  from  his 
oath  on  the  burning  altar,  at  nine  years  of  age,  a  higher  dramatic  unity 
throughout  the  play.  As  he  sacrificed  his  private  affections  for  Carthage 
and  for  her,  narrowed  his  mind  to  one  idea,  that  of  eternal  enmity  to 
Rome,  so  in  his  banishment  and  self-inflicted  death,  he  offered  upon  the 
altar  of  Carthage  his  last  and  richest  sacrifice,  that  of  his  spiritual  free- 
dom. 

The  patriotic  extreme  in  Hannibal's  death  scene  is  offset  dramatically 
by  the  crowning  point  in  the  career  of  Scipio  in  whom  the  soldier  ready 
at  his  country's  need,  gave  way  in  leisure  to  the  practical  philosopher 
who  understood  Rome's  failings  and  could  evade  their  results  because 
he  had  witnessed  the  ingratitude  of  Carthage  to  Hannibal. 

Carthage 

Thy  base  ingratitude  to  him  whose  merit 

But  justly  challenged  all  that  thou  could'st  owne 

Shall  teach  me  a  prevention,  Solitude 

WQ.  U.  1824-1836,  A.  V:2. 


32  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

.  Is  the  soules  best  compamon.     At  Linturnum 
My  country  villa  I  will  terminate 
My  after  life  free  from  mens  flatteries, 
And  feare  of  their  leane  envie. 


V 

The  Question  Concerning  "A  Former  Play" 

The  preceding  analysis  of  the  tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio  pointed 
to  an  unevenness  of  structure  which  at  times  amounts  nearly  to  a  con- 
tradiction of  dramatic  purpose.  For  example,  in  the  closing  act,  the 
emphasis  upon  Scipio's  magnanimity  toward  Hannibal  in  assurance  of 
his  safety,  is  followed  by  a  more  verbal  return  to  the  historical  record 
with  the  appearance  of  armed  soldiers  surrounding  Hannibal  with  intent 
to  capture  him  in  accordance  with  Scipio's  purpose  expressed  in  the 
closmg  lines  of  the  fourth  act,  .  .  .  "Wee'l  hunt  this  Afifrick  Lion 
into  a  stronger  toyle.  /  Fame  shall  waite  on  us.  /  Till  we -have  loaded 
her,  and  that  she  see.  /  Out  triumph  finisht  in  his  tragedy.  "^^  The 
style  of  the  play  throughout  has  been  described  as,  at  times,  following 
the  historical  record,  and  at  other  times,  dealing  in  highly  sententious 
and  speculative  speeches,  in  most  instances  combined  with  a  wealth  of 
classical  allusion  and  scenic  effect."  The  two  styles  are  at  times  in  such 
direct  contrast  as  to  favor  the  inference  that  this  tragedy  is  possibly  a 
revision  of  an  older  play;  that  the  portions  of  nearly  epic-narrative  style 
represent  more  nearly  the  older  play,  whereas  the  scenes  characterized 
by  sententious  contrast  and  sometmies  heightened  in  effect  by  classical 
allusion,  show  a  more  complete  revision  by  the  later  dramatist.  It  is 
the  purpose  of  the  following  discussion  to  investigate  the  evidence  for 
this  inference. 

In  his  Prologue  to  the  tragedy,  which  was  probably  written  somewhat 
later  than  the  play  itself,  the  author  anticipates  question  on  the  part 
of  his  critics,  as  to  the  originahty  of  the  plot.  After  contrasting  the 
noisy  performance  at  the  larger  theatre  to  the  advantage  of  the  circum- 
stances under  which  his  play  is  to  be  given,  the  dramatist  continues: — 

Our  Spheares 

Have  better  musick  to  delight  your  eares, 

And  not  a  straine  that's  old,  though  some  would  task 

His  borrowing  from  a  former  play.^^ 

'«Q.  11.  1913.    Act  V  (last  scene);  Q.  11.  1675.    Act  IV,  (last  scene). 
"  Act  1:  n:5.     Cf.  Act  HI:  1-5.     Also  3,  Q.  11.  950. 
^8Q.  (Prologue)  11.  26-29. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  33 

Bullen's  note  on  the  allusion  to  ''a  former  play"  suggests  a  possible 
influence  from  Marston's  Sophonisba,  which  had  been  published  in  1606.'^ 
In  the  same  note  BuUen  recalls  a  non-extant  Hannibal  and  Scipio  by 
William  Rankin  and  Richard  Hathwaye,  mentioned  by  Henslowe  as 
acted  in  1600-1,  at  the  Fortune  theatre.^^  This  play  in  turn  will  recall 
the  also  non-extant  Hannibal  and  Hermes,  or  Worse  ^Feared  than  Hurt, 
collaborated  in  1598,  by  Wilson,  Drayton  and  Dekker.^^  An  obstacle 
to  the  inference  of  Nabbes'  indebtedness  to  either  of  these  two  plays 
last  named,  lies  in  the  doubt  whether  they  were  extant  when  Nabbes 
wrote  his  play.  That  the  Hannibal  and  Hermes  had  some  close  con- 
nection with  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  the  Fortune,  is  supported  by 
the  fact  that  the  Admiral's  company  for  which  Wilson,  Drayton  and 
Dekker  also  had  written,  was  received  by  the  New  Fortune  at  its  com- 
pletion in  1600.  It  is  possible  that  their  Hannibal  and  Hermes  of  1598, 
was  the  basis  of  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  the  Fortune.  If  either  of 
these  plays  survived  the  burning  of  that  theatre,  there  seems  to  be  no 
mention  of  them  at  least,  after  the  rebuilding  of  the  Fortune  in  1624.^^ 
On  the  other  hand  the  reference  in  the  prologue,  to  the  contrast  between 
the  quiet  performance  of  his  play  and  that  of  the  cruder  and  perhaps 
earlier  theatre,  is  significant  when  associated  with  Nabbes'  mention  of  "  a 
former  play."  That  Nabbes'  first  tragedy  coincides  so  nearly  in  sub- 
ject with  one  of  Dekker's  early  attempts  at  play  writing,  is  also  inter- 
esting, occuring  as  it  did  in  Dekker's  last  years  when  the  younger  drama- 
tist possibly  knew  him  in  London.  Even  if  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio, 
of  1601,  had  perished  with  the  old  Fortune  theatre,  it  is  yet  possible  that 
the  manuscript  of  the  Hannibal  and  Hermes  of  1598,  survived  with 
Dekker  as  late  as  1635  or  1637.  Even  if  these  two  plays  were  non- 
extant  when  Nabbes  wrote  his  tragedy,  the  frequent  reference  to  the 
fortunes  of  Hannibal,  made  in  other  plays  written  within  the  decade 
before  the  appearance  of  Nabbes'  tragedy,  shows  that  the  earlier  plays 
on  Hannibal  were  still  current  themes  for  allusion  upon  the  stage.  For 
example,  Thomas  May's  tragedy  of  Cleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt,  which 
appeared  in  1626,  contains  a  specific  allusion  made  at  Cleopatra's  feast, 
to  Hannibal's  luxury  at  Capua,  an  allusion  which  was  possibly  suggested 
by  a  play  rather  than  drawn  directly  from  history.^ 

"  Sophonisba  or  The  Wonder  of  Women.    See  Bullen,  Ed.  V.  I,  p.  190.     Cf. 
Introd.  VI,  p.  441. 

80  Henslowe's  Diary,  Gregg  Ed.  (2  V.  I)  VI  Sect.  60. 

81  Henslowe's  Diary,  V.  I,  Gregg  Ed.  2  V.  Sect.  90. 

•»  Cf.  Schilling  Elizabethan  Drama,  V.  I.    Introd.  XXVI. 
••  Cleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt.  1 :3  (1654)  acted  1626. 


34  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

A  possibility  of  Nabbes'  indebtedness  to  either  of  the  two  plays 
named,  or  even  to  a  still  earlier  play  possibly  used  as  a  basis  for  those 
two  plays,  would  be  strengthened  if  it  were  probable  that  these  plays 
contained  the  story  of  Sophonisba.  Ward  thinks  that  the  earlier  and 
also  non-extant  History  of  Cipio  Africanus,  acted  at  Whitehall,  in  1579- 
80,  by  the  children  of  Pauls,  may  be  supposed  to  have  included  the 
Sophonisba  story.  ^  Though  Ward  does  not  give  the  basis  of  his  supposi- 
tion, the  three  plays  named,  derived  as  they  possibly  were,  in  part,  at 
least,  from  Livy's  History  of  Rome,  or  else  from  a  work  based  upon 
Livy,  would  probably  follow,  after  the  manner  of  other  chronicle  plays, 
the  complete  trend  of  incident  connected  with  the  character  of  the 
play.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  if  the  play  of  Cipio  Africanus 
contained  the  incident  of  Hannibal's  Capuan  pleasures,  it  also  contained 
the  Sophonisba  incident  so  closely  associated  with  the  fortunes  of  Syphax 
whose  revolt  from  Rome  to  Carthage  is  inseparable  from  the  fortunes 
of  Hannibal  and  S cipio. 

The  Cipio  Africanus  1579-80,  is  probably  alluded  to  in  Gosson's 
School  of  Abuse,  published  in  1579.  In  his  inveighment  against  fencing, 
gaming  and  drama,  he  makes  exception  of  plays  which  enforce  a  moral. 
In  close  connection  with  his  commendation  of  such  as  Cataline's  Con- 
spiracie,  he  alludes  to  another  play  which  shows  how  lack  of  vigilance 
may  impair  true  valor.  "Hannibal's  power  received  more  hurte  in  one 
daye's  ease  at  Capua  than  in  all  the  conflicts  they  had  at  Cannae.  "^^ 
In  the  same  paragraph  he  commends  for  imitation,  *'Scipio  (who)  before 
he  levied  his  forces  to  the  Walles  of  Carthage  gave  his  souldiers  the  print 
of  the  cittie  in  a  cake  to  be  devoured. "  If  Gosson  refers  to  the  Revel's 
play  of  Cipio  Africanus,  as  he  probably  does,  Hannibal's  defeat  because 
of  ease  at  Capua  was  a  dominant  motive,  and  there  is  a  probability  that 
it  also  contained  the  Spyhax  and  Sophonisba  story  of  a  kindred  moral, 
so  closely  connected  with  the  fate  of  Carthage.  The  play  of  Hannibal 
and  Scipio,  1600-01,  of  the  Fortune,  and  the  Revel's  Cipio  Africanus, 
1579-80,  judging  from  the  title  of  the  former,  and  from  Gossen's  prob- 
able reference  to  the  latter,  may  be  supposed  to  have  had  approximately 
the  same  basis,  even  if  the  former  were  not  a  combination  of  the  latter 
with  the  Hannibal  and  Hermes  of  1598,  in  which  Dekker  collaborated 
with  Wilson  and  Drayton.^ 

"  Ward's  Eng.  Dr.  Literature,  V.  I,  p.  208. 

*P.  39  Gosson's  School  of  Abuse,  reprinted  for  the  Shak.  Soc.  London,  1841. 

^oHenslowe  38,  39,  V.  1  Gregg. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  35 

Added  to  the  consideration  involved  in  Nabbes'  allusion  to  "a  former 
play,"  the  probability  that  his  Hannibal  and  Scipio  is  a  revision  of  one 
of  the  earlier  plays,  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  explained  above,  that  the 
action  of  the  tragedy  is,  unduly  extended,  and  follows  closely  the  cruder 
type  of  the  history-play.  At  the  same  time,  it  admits  classical  myth 
in  the  vogue  of  Elizabethan  and  early  seventeenth  century  drama.  It 
also  resembles  plays  of  the  earlier  time  in  that  its  action  depends  for 
development  upon  a  loose  bringing  together  of  the  characters  in  con- 
trasting attitudes.  These  plays,  it  will  be  remembered",  differed  in 
kind;  some,  Hke  Jonson's  Sejanus  and  his  Cataline,  followed  strictly  the 
classical  narrative,  or  else  they  emphasized  the  heroic  note,  as  in  the 
Dekker-Massinger's  Virgin  Martyr,  Massinger's  Roman  Actor,  Fletcher's 
Valentinian,  May's  Cleopatra  and  his  Agrippina.  Though  Hannibal  and 
Scipio  has  qualities  belonging  to  both  groups,  it  is  classed  more  nearly 
with  the  latter  tragedies  from  classical  history  treated  romantically.^^ 

With  so  casual  an  inquiry  for  the  "former  play"  as  has  fallen  to  the 
general  historian  of  the  drama,  and  to  the  general  editor  of  Nabbes  works, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  a  fragment  of  a  play  in  Latin  verse,  in  which 
Hannibal  is  a  prominent  character,  a  manuscript  belonging  to  the 
Bodleian  Library,  should  have  escaped  the  notice  of  Ward  and  Bullen.^^ 
Though  the  title  has  not  survived,  the  scene  is  Saguntum,  with  whose 
siege  Hannibal  opened  the  second  Punic  war.  The  fragment  ends  with 
the  second  scene  of  the  second  act.  The  characters  speak  in  monologue 
of  the  Epic-narrative  style,  and  generally  make  the  exit  individually 
or  else  in  a  group.  There  is  no  dialogue,  and  the  chorus  helps  to  supply 
the  action.  Brief  as  the  fragment  is,  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  follows 
the  Punica  of  Silius,  beginning  as  it  does  with  a  prologue  by  Juno,  and 
throughout  its  brief  scenes  of  about  two  hundred  and  thirty  five  lines, 
taking  its  content  in  general,  from  the  first  three  books  of  the  Punica.^^ 
Though  the  much  mutilated  fragment  has  no  date,  the  handwriting  is 
of  the  late  sixteenth  century.  The  Latin  lettering  is  also  of  the  early 
type.  The  fragment  is  bound,  in  early  eighteenth  century  English  mode, 
with  other  pamphlets  among  which  is  a  copy  of  Andrew  Boorde's  Dietary 
of  Health,  bearing  the  date  1553.  The  volume  came  to  the  Bodleian 
with  Malone's  library  in  182LS9    Though  the  identity  of  the  fragment 

8'  Cf .  Schelling's  Elizabethan  Drama,  V.  II,  pp.  19,  28,  37. 

88  See  List  of  Plays,  p.  624,  Schelling.     Ed.  1909. 

8«  For  the  history  of  the  fragment  as  far  as  known,  as  well  as  for  the  transcript, 
a  copy  of  which  is  given  p.  53,  I  am  indebted  to  the  Librarian  of  the  Bodleian.  For 
its  reference  to  the  Punica  for  content  in  general,  suggestion  is  given  in  "Ghosts  .  .  . 
to  Author."    Q.  11.  20-22. 


36  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OP  THOMAS  NABBES 

with  the  Punica  in  content,  order  of  situation  and  event  is  quite  possible, 
the  dramatization  of  the  epic  has  necessarily  changed  to  a  great  extent 
the  diction  and  construction,  yet  leaving  the  thought  and  spirit  intact. 
It  would  appear  that  the  situations  selected  from  the  epic,  were  first 
translated  into  English  and  retranslated  into  the  Latin  verse  of  the 
play.  Judging  by  the  fragment,  the  play  did  not  slavishly  follow  the 
epic  throughout  its  prosaic  seventeen  books  which  have  interlarded 
Livy's  third  decade  with  Vergilian  periphrasis,  although  it  has  retained 
so  far,  much  of  the  Virgihan  spirit,  with  its  compression  within  two 
hundred  and  thirty-five  lines,  of  the  essentials  of  the  first  three  books  of 
the  Punica.  ^°  The  dramatist  probably  read  thoroughly  the  Epic  before 
attempting  his  play  in  which  he  has  apparently  developed  from  the  con- 
tent of  the  Epic,  a  chorus  and  other  senic  and  interpretative  intermedii, 
such  as  the  Ghost  of  Amilcer  who  appears  upon  the  scene  to  ask  whether 
Hannibal  intends  to  carry  out  his  childhood's  oath  against  Rome,  and 
thus  prove  himself  worthy  of  his  father,  Amilcar.^^  Juno,  with  whose 
wrath  Hannibal  is  described  in  the  opening  lines  of  the  Epic,  as  having 
invested  himself  before  the  siege  of  Saguntum,  appears,  in  the  Frag- 
ment, in  character,  to  embody  that  wrath  in  prologue.  ^^  Bostar, 
who,  at  the  close  of  the  third  book  of  the  epic,  is  described  as  inspiring 
the  Cathagian  heroes,"  "pugnae  propriano  amore,"  has,  as  Boschus 
of  the  Fragment,  infused  this  same  spirit  into  the  several  ranks  and  types, 
of  soldiers.  The  Lancer,  the  Archer,  each  declares  his  enthusiasm  for 
battle  to  the  extent  that  he  is  willing  to  brave  the  struggle  alone  and 
upon  his  own  account. ^^ 

Though  it  is  impossible  to  attempt  an  identification  of  the  probably 
late  sixteenth  century  manuscript  with  either  the  Cipio  Africanus  of 
1479-80,  or  the  Hannibal  and  Hermes  of  1598,  or  the  Hannibal  and  S cipio 
of  1600-01,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  if  any  identification  were 
possible,  it  would  be  with  a  play  of  Latin  title,  and  this  would  be  Cipio 
Africanus  belonging  as  it  did  to  the  type  of  plays  designed  for  school 
and  court.  It  is  impossible  however  to  say  whether  the  revel's  Cipio 
Africanus  was  an  abstract  direct  from  Livy,  or  whether  it  was  influenced 
in  any  way  by  North's  translation  of  Plutarch's  parallel  lives  of  Hannibal 
and  Scipio  which  appeared  in  1579.     If  as  supposed,  Gosson  refers  to 

»°  The  three  books  comprise  2096  11. 

»iCf.  Punica  1:81-135;  see  Fragment,  U.  180  ff. 

92  Cf.  Punica  1;  35-55;  see  Fragment,  11.  1-35. 

93  See  Fragment  "Bolista,"  ''Proiector  Saxorum,"  "Lancia,"  "Sagittarius," 
11.  210-230. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  37 

the  Cipio  Africanus,  it  was  quite  as  sententious  as  Plutarch  knew  how 
to  be.  It  is  significant  however  that  the  reference  to  Scipio's  feast 
before  the  Walls  of  Carthage  which  was  mentioned  above  as  possibly 
identifying  the  play  mentioned  by  Gosson  with  the  Cipio  Africanus, 
bears  some  resemblance  to  the  description  by  Silius  of  the  encampment 
of  Scipio's  army  before  Carthage.  After  the  taking  of  the  city  they  gave 
libations  on  account  of  the  booty  and  celebrated  their  victory  with  a 
feast. 

pradae  libamina  dantur 
Turn  vacui  curis  vdcino  litore  mensas 
Instituunt,  festaque  agitant  convivia  ludo."* 

In  regard  to  the  possibility  of  identifying  the  fragment  with  the 
"former  play"  confessedly  used  by  Nabbes,  there  is  some  evidence  in 
its  favor.  The  existence  itself  of  this  remnant  of  a  Latin  play  which 
was  possibly  intact  when  Nabbes  wrote  his  tragedy;  the  extent  to  which 
the  vocabulary  of  the  tragedy  is  of  Latin  derivation,  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  masques,  to  a  degree  byond  Nabbes'  other  plays,  even  to  the 
frequent  inclusion  of  the  Latin  form  of  the  word,  are  significant.  Though 
the  fragment  opens  and  is  broken  off  at  Saguntum,  whereas  the  tragedy 
of  Nabbes  opens  with  Hannibal's  festivity  at  Capua,  it  is  probable  that 
Silius  figures  largely  among  Nabbes'  various  sources;  for  he  is  mentioned 
directly  by  Nabbes  in  the  reminder  of  the  Ghosts  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio 
that  in  contrast  with  his  own  unpaid  pains  and  "cheap  Phoebean" 
honors. 

The  singer  of  the  Punick  wars  had  bayes 
Making  our  acts  his  subject;  and  thy  prayse 
Should  be  no  lesse.^^  . 

The  appearance  of  Amilcar's  ghost  as  used  in  the  fragment,  is  in  keeping 
with  the  appeal  of  Nabbes  to  the  ghosts  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  and  with 
their  reply  which  would  suggest  that  Lucian,  the  clever  satirist,  inspired 
the   author's   quaintly   humorous   appeal 

What  charm  commands  us  hither  to  repayre? 
And  once  again  salute  the  upper  ayee? 
Would  Lucian  vexe  our  shaddows?     make  us  tell 
Which  of  us  holds  priority  in  Hell?  .  .  .  •• 

^  Punica  XV,  220,  235,  especially  11.  262  and  272. 

95  See  the  "Ghosts  ...  to  the  Author,"  A  20-23.      Cf.  Lucian's  "Dialogues  of 
the  Dead,"  XIII. 
"••Q.  U.  1-4. 


38  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

The  oath  which  Hannibal,  according  to  tradition,  took  at  nine  years  of 
age  against  Rome,  figures  largely  in  SiHus,  and  dramatically  in  both  the 
fragment  and  the  play  of  Nabbes.  It  is  probable  that  Silius  gave  sug- 
gestion for  the  comparison  of  Hannibal  with  Hercules  who  according  to 
tradition,  was  the  first  to  cross  the  Alps,  though  Appian  also  represents 
Hannibal  as  saying  that  none  before  himself  except  Hercules,  had 
crossed  the  Alps.^^  It  is  not  improbable  that  some  rhetorical  influence 
from  such  passages  of  the  Punica  as  the  soHloquy  of  Hercules  upon  the 
difficulties  of  his  mountain  journey,  may  have  colored  corresponding 
passages  in  the  tragedy  even  when  it  draws  the  event  more  directly 
from  Livy,  Appian,  or  Plutarch.^^  The  Herculean  myth  is  the  dominant 
motive  underlying  both  the  Punica  and  the  tragedy  of  Nabbes.  Both 
transfer  the  idea  at  will  to  describe  either  Hannibal  or  Scipio  as  occasion 
may  suggest.  For  example,  SiHus  transfers  to  Scipio  immediately 
before  his  attempt  to  recapture  Saguntum,  the  myth  in  which  Virtue 
and  Pleasure  appeared  in  a  dream  and  contended  for  the  mastery  over 
Hercules.^^  The  same  contest  between  temperance  and  pleasure  is 
the  informing  motive  of  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  Nabbes.  This 
contest  is  made  for  both  heroes;  the  difference  in  the  outcome  lies  in  the 
individuality  which  in  both  men  is  largely  the  result  of  heredity  and 
environment. 

The  attitude  of  SiHus  to  the  story  of  Sophonisba  is  that  of  Livy  and 
other  patriotic  Romans.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  play  repre- 
sented by  the  fragment,  followed  SiHus  and,  if  so,  it  would  add  another 
possibiHty  of  its  indentity  with  the  Cipio  Africanus;  for  the  complimen- 
tary, and  possible  reference  of  the  Puritan  Gossen  to  the  latter  play, 
would  logically  involve  such  an  attitude.  In  this  point  the  tragedy, 
Hannibal  nad  Scipio,  follows  Appian,  instead  of  Livy,  and  consequently 
differs  in  this  from  SiHus  and  possibly  from  the  fragment-play.  In 
Scipio's  magnanimity  and  self  restraint  shown  in  his  restoration  of  a 
Spanish  captive  in  safety  to  her  friends,  both  Silius  and  Nabbes  follow 
Livy  in  essentials,  but  both  alike  place  this  incident  directly  after  the 
capture  of  Carthage;  whereas  the  historian  places  it  in  Spain,  after  the 
capture  of  Saguntum. ^^^ 

'Tunica,  Bk.  111:1.    490-495.     Cp.  Appian,  V.  II,  p.  121  White's  Edition. 
»8Livy  XXI,  30-31,  Appian,  VII  :1,  Plutarch's  Life  of  Hannibal,  North  Transl. 
'Tunica,  XV;  17-148.    See  also  Xenophon's  Memorabilia,  11:2. 
''^Tunica,  XV:268  and  Nabbes'  Hannibal  and  Scipio  Q,  V:5,  1572-1640.      Cf. 
Livy  XXVI  :50. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  39 

The  constant  approach  to  an  equaHty  of  prowess  in  the  two  heroes 
is  characteristic  of  both  Sihus  and  Nabbes.  The  allusions,  the  choice 
of  epithet  in  the  more  highly  rhetorical  portions  of  the  tragedy,  recall 
similar  expressions  in  Silius;  but  the  tragedy  has  elaborated  its  allusions 
from  other  sources  for  dramatic  effect.  As  an  illustration  of  the  dif- 
ference, the  opening  scene  of  the  tragedy,  at  Capua,  the  traditional 
winter  quarters  of  Hannibal,  where  he  was  entertained  with  festivities, 
after  his  victory  at  Cannae,  is  heightened  by  allusion  beyond  the  des- 
cription of  the  same  scene  by  Silius,  who  evidently  imitates  closely  the 
style  of  the  corresponding  scene  of  the  Aeneid,  the  entertainment  of 
Aeneas  by  Dido.^*^^  The  beginning  of  Hannibal's  revenge  upon  Rome, 
at  Saguntum,  described  by  the  brief  fragment,  is  omitted  by  the  tragedy, 
except  that  his  former  victory  is  a  splendid  memory  amid  the  festivity 
of  Capua,  to  be  interrupted  by  news  of  the  recapture  of  Saguntum  by 
Scipio.  Consequently  a  direct  bringing  together  of  the  two  texts  is 
impossible,  and  their  only  common  ground  apparently  is  in  their  general 
points  of  identity  with  the  Punica.  Considering  its  brevity,  the  frag- 
ment possibly  has  its  due  proportion  of  allusion  and  rhetorical  phrasing 
conceived  rather  in  the  epic  style  of  the  opening  books  of  the  Punica^ 
than  in  the  scenic  and  dramatic  style  of  the  tragedy.^^^ 

In  summary,  the  probability  of  this  common  ground  in  the  Punica 
between  the  fragment  and  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  Nabbes,  points 
to  the  possibility  that  the  fragment  is  of  the  former  play  referred  to  by 
Nabbes  in  his  prologue.  This  possibility  is  supported  by  the  considera- 
tion that  the  fragment  is  the  only  play  on  the  subject  known  to  be 
extant  in  England.  This  possibiUty  is  further  strengthened  by  the 
fact  that  the  fragment  is  in  Latin  and  that  Nabbes'  tragedy  gives  evi- 
dence of  a  Latin  basis  other  than  Livy.  From  the  corresponding  data 
of  the  above  study  it  would  seem  that  either  the  Punica  itself  was  this 
basis  or  that  else  a  play  based  upon  the  Punica  was  used.  Nabbes 
grants  the  assumption  that  such  a  play  was  used,  and  this  fragment  is 
the  only  play  known  to  be  extant  which  gives  evidence  of  having  been 
based  upon  the  Punica. 

^'''Hannibal  and  Scipio  11:1-3,  Q.  11.  1-160.  Cf.  SiUus  XI:261-483;  Aeneid 
1:637-755. 

»<«  Frag.  1.12.  Rutile  cf.  Punica  RtUulo  1;  1.371-584,  11:541,  and  others.  Frag. 
1.  61  ignis  sicut  ^tnaeus  fuerit,  cf.  H.  &  S  111:4,  Q.  1192.3.  Frag.  1.181  quid  facit 
Hannibal  Belidae  generis.  ...  Cf.  Punica  1.  70-73  Belo  numerabat.  Frag.  1. 
227,  ubi  Patrio  veneno  Getica.  ...  Cf.  Punica  1.  324;  Geticae  telluris  .  .  .  ven- 
eno.  .  .  .    Frag.  1.232-3  Cadmea  domo  et  gentente  digna  cf.  Punica  1.  106. 


40  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 


VI 

The  Original  Classic  Sources  and  Influences  for  "Hannibal 

AND  Scii>io" 

In  his  Prologue  to  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  Nabbes  characterizes  his 
play  as  "from  a  rich  subject  drawn,"  a  phrase  justified  in  the  story's 
almost  incalculable  amount  and  variety  of  Greek  and  Roman  historical 
and  mythical  content.^"^  The  treatment  of  the  story  by  Latin  writers 
alone,  ranges  from  fragments  of  Naevius  and  Ennius,  with  the  detailed 
treatment  in  the  several  Greek  and  Roman  historians,  to  the  briefer 
mention  by  Roman  poets,  philosophers  and  satirists  of  the  early,  and 
the  late  Empire,  who  used  the  story  of  Hannibal's  fortunes  to  mould  a 
proverb  and  to  point  a  moral.  The  revival  of  portions  of  the  story 
by  writers  of  the  early  Renaissance,  especially  by  Petrarch,  Boccacio, 
Bandello  and  others,  made  its  content  a  source  of  current  literary  motive 
and  allusion  for  novehst,  poet  and  dramatist,  as  well  as  a  theme  for 
art  in  general.  Sixteenth  century  enthusiasm  for  the  classics  gave  the 
several  characters  of  the  story  wider  scope,  through  French  and  Eng- 
lish translations  making  them  at  once  popular  subjects,  especially  in 
the  drama,  where  the  characters  have  been  somewhat  divided.  EngHsh 
drama  almost  alone  has  employed  to  any  extent  the  rivalry  between 
Hannibal  and  Scipio,  whereas  the  Itahan,  the  French  drama,  and  after 
these,  that  of  other  countries  has  employed  the  story  of  Sophonisba 
almost  to  the  exclusion  of  the  character  of  Hannibal.  The  remainder 
of  this  study  will  attempt  to  treat  in  some  detail  the  question  of  the 
original  sources  of  Nabbes'  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  as  found  in  the  classics 
and  as  repeated  in  mediaeval  and  modern  versions  of  the  classic  story. 

Of  classic  historians,  Polybius  and  especially  Livy  were  the  chief 
sources  for  succeeding  historians  and  poets.  In  the  fourteenth  century. 
Appian  found  a  place  among  poets  and  novehsts  for  his  version  of  the 
story  of  Sophonisba;  but  with  the  rise  of  the  romantic  drama,  such 
fourteenth  century  versions  as  those  of  Petrarch,  Boccacio  and  Bandello, 
which  employed  Livy's  History  of  Rome  as  the  general  basis,  were  also 
used  as  sources  for  plays  whether  of  classical  or  romantic  character. 
Though  Livy  has  retained  precedence  by  virtue  of  his  richly  descriptive 
detail,  vivid  character  coloring,  epic  quality,  and  vivacious  narrative 
movement  easily  reconstructed  into  drama,  Appian's  relation  of  Sophonis- 
ba's  betrothal  to  Massanissa  prior  to  her  patriotic  marriage  to  Syphax, 

i»  Prologue,  Q.  1.  10. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  41 

has  taken  precedence  in  a  number  of  the  plays,  over  Livy's  version 
which  omits  this  incident  so  replete  with  pathos  and  dramatic  interest. 

Earlier  comment  upon  Nabbes'  tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipioy  re- 
ferred in  very  general  terms  to  its  classic  sources.  Langbaine's  list  is 
probably  the  most  complete,  mentioning  besides  Livy,  CorneUus  Nepos, 
Plutarch,  Florus,  Justinus,  Orosius,  Diodorus,  Polybius,  Appian, 
Eutropius,  and  adding  a  Renaissance  source  in  Petrarch's  //  Trionfo 
d'Amore,  for  the  Sophonisba  story.  Langebaine  apparently  refers  in 
large  to  the  whole  material  rather  than  to  Nabbes'  specific  selection 
from  the  material.^^  BuUen's  edition  of  comparatively  recent  date, 
1887,  refers  the  story  generally  to  Livy,  and  traces  several  detached 
scenes  and  passages  of  the  play  to  definite  sections  of  that  historian. 
He  adds  to  these  a  reference  to  Cicero,  quoted  in  the  play  itself,  for  the 
tradition  of  Scipio's  admiration  for  Xenophon's  Cyropaedia,  and  notes 
some  minor  sources  of  allusion,  such  as  Lucian  and  Silius  Itahcus.^^ 
Bullen's  references  are  probably  as  specific  and  complete  as  necessary 
for  an  edition  of  all  the  available  plays  and  poems  of  Nabbes.  A  more 
intimate  study,  however,  of  the  tragedy,  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  admits 
not  only  of  a  closer  scrutiny  of  its  subject  matter  in  relation  to  the 
classics  and  other  sources  available,  but  also  of  other  possible  influences 
upon  the  theme  and  dramatic  construction  of  the  play. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  "former  play"  reference  has  been  made  to 
the  very  probable  sources  in  Sihus  Italicus,  Livy  and  Appian;  with 
Lucian  as  a  source  of  allusion  and  of  form  in  the  ''addresses"  with 
which  the  play  is  prefaced.^^  The  author's  choice  of  motto  for  his 
title  page,  "Arma  Virumque  cano,"  pays  a  passing  tribute  to  the  master 
of  Silius  and  to  the  epic  of  Roman  foundations,  which  had  their  first  rival 
in  young  Carthage,  and  which  even  so  early  had  exacted  self-immolation 
of  ''Sidonian  Dido."^^^  Lucian  probably  furnishes  Hanno's  allusion 
to  the  Salapian  lady  as  Omphale,  the  Lydian  Queen,  who  held  Hercules 
in  distaff  service.^^^  Possibly  Hannibal  has  in  mind  the  same  allusion, 
when  at  Capua  he  rebukes  his  soldiers  as  those  who  ''Lay  by  all  com- 
mand, save  only.  /  To  set  your  distaffe  servants  tasks,  and  study.  / 
Lascivious  dressings,  not  warres  disciphne.  "^^^ 

^°*  Langbaine's  Eng.  Dramat.  Poets,  p.  326. 

»»  Bullen  V.  II.  p.  M. 

i^Q.  11.  1-4. 

lO'Aeneid,  1:1,  348.  IV:629,  692. 

i"*  Lucian,  Dial.  Deonim,  XIII  :2,  cf.  Ovid,  Fasti,  2:305. 

io»Q.  1.  1433,  A.  IV :2.  A.  1:3,  Q.  1.  174. 


42  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

To  gather  more  specific  data  from  the  great  body  of  material  which 
was  available  for  Nabbes,  some  not  indefinite  parallel  can  be  drawn 
between  his  play  and  Plutarch's  Lives  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  where 
legendary  detail  is  sometimes  fuller  than  in  Livy's  history.  For  example, 
Hannibal  on  seeing  the  effects  of  Capuan  luxury  upon  his  soldiers,  sug- 
gests leading  them  again  to  Rome  to  stimulate  their  war-energy.  Plu- 
tarch alone  notes  specifically  the  incident  of  the  Salapian  gentlewoman, 
and  he  comments  that  writers  are  divided  upon  the  question  of  Hannibal's 
yielding  himself  to  the  pleasures  that  captivated  his  soldiers:  ''Some," 
writes  Plutarch,  ''greatly  commending  the  continencie  of  this  Cap- 
tain. "^1°  Plutarch's  doubt  is  used  in  the  play  to  Hannibal's  advantage, 
though  the  dramatic  appeal  of  the  Salapian  lady  to  his  valor  as  a  com- 
mander, and  immediately  afterward,  through  the  yet  more  dramatic 
announcement  of  Scipio 's  victory  in  Spain,  an  incident  calling  Hannibal 
at  once  to  renewed  action.^^^  The  kindred  episode  of  Scipio 's  self- 
command  in  restoring  the  Spanish  captive  to  her  friends,  is  tised  in  the 
resolution  of  Massanissa's  temporary  ahenation  from  Scipio  on  account 
of  Sophonisba's  death."^  The  portrayal  of  this  in  the  play  is  similar 
to  Plutarch's  representation  of  Scipio  as  a  "Myrour  and  example  of  all 
virtue";  but  in  dramatic  detail  the  play  resembles  Livy,  and  especially 
Polybius  from  whom  both  Plutarch  and  Livy  probably  drew  the  inci- 
dent, though  Plutarch  drew  also  from  writers  no  longer  extant.  The 
traits  portrayed  in  the  Scipio  of  Nabbes,  are  in  general,  those  of  Livy. 
For  both  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  the  play  represses  for  the  greater  part, 
the  religious  formaHties  with  which,  according  to  Plutarch,  Scipio  awed 
the  public,  and  in  the  play  there  is  apparently  no  special  connection 
between  Hannibal's  sacrificial  oath  at  nine  years  old  and  the  reUgious 
elements  in  his  personality  which  according  to  Polybius  and  Plutarch, 
fused  as  fire,  the  heterogeneous  army  into  soldiers  of  Hannibal,  For  the 
greater  part,  Hannibal  of  the  play  is  portrayed  in  much  the  same  spirit 
in  which  Livy  describes  his  single,  warlike  and  revengeful  personality 
in  contrast  with  that  of  the  Roman  chief  whose  martial  genius  was  sub- 
ordinated to  the  greater  wisdom  of  the  Roman  citizen  and  philosopher. 
To  Hannibal  of  the  play  probably  Livy  gave  such  concrete  features  as 
the  swarthy  face  wrinkled  by  age  and  care,  the  eye  that  had  lost  its 
light  in  the  fens  of  Arnus,  the  cruelty  and  craft  of  his  expression,  and 

""Plutarch's  Life  of  Hannibal,  North's  transl.  Temple  Ed.  V.  X,  p.  178-181. 
Cf.  Polybius  III,  11,  48,  82. 
"iQ.  1:  2,    11.  60-410. 
"»Q.  IV:  5  11.  1570-1644. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  43 

possibly  his  untiring  physical  and  intellectual  energy;  in  short,  the 
soldier  virtues  accorded  to  Hannibal  for  Scipio's  greater  glory  in  the 
victory.^^^  Hannibal's  more  subtle  qualities  of  character,  however,  in 
his  refusal  to  despair,  his  ahnost  superhuman  power  to  achieve  his 
purpose,  his  intuitive  insight  into  character  and  his  knowledge  of  men, 
which  in  the  play,  seemed  marvellous  to  Scipio  in  a  barbarian,  are 
qualities  similar  to  the  estimate  of  Polybius."^  There  is  possibly  some 
repetition  of  the  attitude  of  Polybius  in  Plutarch,  though  the  latter 
largely  accepts  the  Roman  attitude  toward  Hannibal,  according  him 
martial  virtues,  solely  in  exaltation  of  Scipio's  character.  It  would 
seem  that  the  play,  though  drawing  from  Cicero  the  allusion  to  the 
Cyropaedia  of  Xenophon  for  the  protot)^e  of  Scipio's  stoic  virtues, 
nevertheless,  follows  Appian  for  the  legendary  detail  of  the  meeting 
between  the  two  heroes."^  The  change  of  the  event  from  Ephesus  to 
the  Court  of  Prusias  in  Bythinia,  is  made  to  bring  the  debate  between 
the  two  heroes  for  precedence  in  war,  directly  before  the  climax  of  interest 
in  the  ethical  rivalry  which  closes  with  Hannibal's  death.  Appian 
abridges  the  meeting  at  Ephesus  and  the  treachery  by  which  Flaminius 
caused  Hannibal's  death  at  the  court  of  Prusias,  bringing  the  two  inci- 
dents together  in  the  same  paragraph  in  order  to  contrast  the  magnanimity 
of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  with  the  perfidy  of  Flaminius.  Livy  could  have 
furnished  Nabbes  with  only  the  basis  here,  as  the  points  which  Livy 
enlarged  upon  are  not  followed  by  the  play.  It  is  possible,  as  explained 
above,  that  this  is  one  of  the  instances  in  which  Nabbes  made  radical 
changes  from  the  "former  play"  which  as  already  shown,  possibly 
followed  Silius  Italicus  in  his  paraphrase  of  Livy.  However,  Silius  and 
Nabbes  employ  the  fame  of  each  hero  to  enhance  that  of  the  other  in  the 
same  spirit  which  constitutes  the  chief  resemblance  between  the  two 
writers  throughout.^^® 

The  legend  used  by  the  play  that  Hannibal  took  poison  from  a  ring 
is  traceable  to  Juvenal's  tenth  satire;  but  there  seems  to  be  no  clue  so 

"'Livy  Hist.  Rome,  XXII :2-4;  XXI :4;  XWI:49-50,  XXVI :19. 

"<  Polybius   111:11,   48-82,   pp.    208-335.    Vol.    I    Schuckburgh's   Translation. 
Polybius  X,  18-19. 

"5  Appian,  V,  11,  Bk.  XI,  11,  p.  120,  White's  Ed. 

^^^Punica  XVII  :403-406,— 

Scipio  si  Libycis  esset  generatus  in  oris, 
Sceptra  ad  Agenoreos  credunt  ventura  nepotes : 
Hannibal  Ausonia  genitus  si  sede  fuisset 
Haud  dubitant  terras  Italia  in  ditione  futuras. 


44  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

far  to  Juvenal's  source.  Many  modern  writers  repeat  the  legend,  but 
none  name  the  source. 

The  substitution  in  the  play,  of  Hannibal  for  Hasdrubal,  and  its 
representation  of  Scipio  as  discourteous  to  Hannibal,  instead  of  Livy's 
representation  of  his  gracious  bearing  toward  Hannibal,  belongs  to  the 
motive  of  the  play  itself,  treating  as  it  does  the  intense  rivalry  between 
the  two  captains  for  the  alliance  of  Syphax  in  the  tragic  crisis  of  Zama.^^^ 
It  also  serves  dramatic  economy  in  giving  to  Hannibal  the  patriotic 
disposal  of  Sophonisba,  and  in  uniting  the  two  heroic  representatives 
of  Carthage  more  closely  to  the  destiny  of  that  city,  as  well  as  in  reducing 
the  number  of  characters  to  the  proportions  of  a  heroic  action.  Another 
instance  of  omission  on  the  part  of  the  play,  in  the  interest  of  abridge- 
ment, is  that  of  Livy's  dramatic  scene  between  Massanissa  and  Sophonis- 
ba, at  the  door  of  her  palace  in  Cirta,  after  the  defeat  of  Syphax."^  The 
meeting  between  Hannibal  and  Scipio  before  the  battle  of  Zama,  as 
described  by  the  messenger,  is  similar  to  that  of  Livy,  even  to  the  inclu- 
sion of  the  fact  that  the  horse  of  Syphax  was  killed  under  him.^^^  So 
for  Hannibal's  behaviour  in  the  senate  house,  after  his  defeat  at  Zama, 
the  play  seems  to  follow  Livy's  account  in  its  detail;  but  the  irony  of 
Hannibal  and  his  contempt  for  Hanno's  graft,  has  possibly  its  origin 
in  Polybius.^2^ 

The  central  motive  of  the  play,  Sophonisba's  sacrifice  for  Carthage 
and  her  self-imposed  death,  undoubtedly  has  Appian  as  its  original 
source.  Appian  is  followed  in  this  incident  by  Plutarch  as  well  as  by 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  his  History  of  the  World,  pubhshed  in  1614,  the 
fifth  and  sixth  books  of  which  treat  the  Second  Punic  War.  Raleigh's 
History  followed  no  one  writer,  but  aimed  to  give  an  account  of  the 
events  and  chief  characters  concerned.  In  the  story  of  Sophonisba, 
Raleigh  gives  Appian  preference  over  Livy  whom  otherwise  he  deems 
more  trustworthy;  but  according  to  Raleigh,  certain  considerations 
prove  Appian's  version  the  more  reasonable.^^^  Appian's  chief  variation 
from  Livy  consists  in  his  account  of  Sophonisba's  betrothal  to  Massanissa, 
before  her  marriage  to  Syphax,  the  latter  contract  having  been  urged 
upon  her  by  the  Carthaginia  senate  as  patriotic  poHcy.^^ 

"'Livy  XXVIII :18. 

"8 Livy  XXX:12,  1,  Cf.  Polybius,  111:2. 

"9  Livy  XXX:30-31,  Cf.  Play  III;  1,  Q.  11,  880-83,  Bullen  quotes  Livy. 

120  Polybius,  XX;  19,  p.  152,  Schuckburgh,  V.  II. 

«i  Raleigh's  History  of  World,  V,  p.  509. 

122  Appian's  Hist.  Rome,  V.  I,  p.  417,  ed.  White. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  45 

It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  a  very  definite  conclusion  for 
individual  writers  as  the  immediate  sources  of  the  play,  Hannibal  and 
Scipio.  To  dramatists  who  read  both  ancient  and  modern  literatures 
in  their  originals  as  easily  as  Nabbes  apparently  read  them,  all  sources 
were  open,  and  it  is  probable  that  many  and  varied  sources  were  read 
in  the  dramatist's  efifort  ''to  write  the  story  new"  and  to  express  his 
heroes  as  they  were  when  they  "breath'd  ayre  and  had  their  beings 
here. "^^  If  his  tasked  "borrowing  from  a  former  play"  is  correctly 
understood  as  an  admission  of  such  indebtedness,  some  evidence  in 
connection  with  that  admission,  has  been  furnished  by  the  fragment 
as  well  as  by  the  play  itself,  that  the  dramatist  reconstructed  what  he 
borrowed,  and  that  he  enlarged  upon  the  ethical  import  of  the  parallel 
between  Hannibal  and  Scipio.^^^  From  certain  changes  and  combina- 
tions acknowledged  by  the  dramatist  as  his  own,  it  may  be  inferred  that 
Nabbes  gave  to  the  play  the  dramatic  perspective  which  constitutes 
Hannibal  and  Sophonisba  the  two  halves  of  the  last  power  and  glory 
of  Carthage,  and  together  the  noblest  because  the  most  patriotic  sacri- 
fice upon  her  altar. 

VII 

Nabbes'   ''Hannibal  and  Scipio"  Compared  with  Other  English 
AND  Foreign  Plays  on  the  Subject  of  the  Second  Punic  War 

If  in  Nabbes'  tragedy  the  characters  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  attain 
a  scarcely  higher  degree  of  sublimity  than  that  of  Sophonisba,  in  the 
foreign  plays,  which  depend  chiefly  upon  the  Sophonisba  motive,  Hanni- 
bal has  either  been  discarded,  or  else  is  included  incidentally,  and  Scipio 
is  retained  chiefly  as  a  factor  in  Sophonisba's  tragedy.  The  artistic 
range  of  Sophonisba's  story  is  significant,  having  been  a  common  theme 
for  the  stage  since  its  first  dramatisation  in  Italy  by  Carretto,  in  1502, 
and  by  Trissino  in  1514.  Through  the  three  centuries  following,  it 
appeared  in  more  than  forty  plays  by  as  many  different  playwrights,  and 
in  all  the  civilized  countries  of  Europe,  except  Portugal  whose  dramatists 
were  content  with  three  different  translations  of  Voltaire's  version.  The 
universal  cult  of  the  story  in  the  different  realms  of  art,  assumed  large 
proportions,  amounting  in  the  instance  of  the  drama,  almost  to  a  cycle 
in  the  varied  adaptations.  It  has  been  particularly  the  subject  of  first 
tragedies,  and  has  been  closely  associated  with  innovations  in  the  drama. 

^  To  the  Ghosts  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  Q.  11.  3-6. 
«*  Prologue,  Q.  U.  15-22.    Also  1.  29. 


46  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

As  the  first  tragedies  of  Carretto  and  of  Trissino,  the  story  began  the 
romantic  drama  in  Italy.  As  its  heroic  vicissitudes  had  lent  themselves 
to  romanticism,  its  simplicity  of  plot  and  sublimity  of  characterisation 
lent  themselves  as  readily  to  classicism  in  Mairet's  Sophonisba,  which 
in  1596,  inaugurated  the  unities  as  the  sine  qua  non  of  French  tragedy. 
Its  heroic  quahties  were  exhibited  in  English  Drama  through  Marston's 
Sophonisba  J  The  Wonder  of  Women,  which  appeared  in  1603,  the  year 
of  the  accession  of  King  James.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  Stuart  reign, 
it  was  again  revived  in  Nabbes'  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  thus  closing  the 
EHzabethan  Drama  with  the  theme  of  patriotic  self-sacrifice.  In  1676, 
Sophonisba  or  HannibaVs  Overthrow,  a  tragedy  by  James  Lee,  completed 
the  adaptation  of  the  story  to  the  conventional  heroic  type  of  Restora- 
tion drama. 

That  Sophonisba's  story  is  a  universal  art  theme  is  shown  in  the  ease 
with  which  it  was  adapted  to  music.  Germany,  which  of  all  countries 
produced  the  greatest  number  of  tragedies  on  the  subject,  thirteen  in  all, 
the  theme  having  been  introduced  there  as  late  as  1680  with  Lohenstein's 
tragedy,  also  gave  Sophonisba  her  musical  apotheosis,  in  1785,  when  it 
was  arranged  as  monodrama  and  set  to  music  by  Meissner.  In  every 
leading  country  of  Europe,  the  story  has  been  used  either  as  a  musical 
theme  or  as  a  subject  by  painters,  except  in  England,  where  first  the 
courtly  play  and  later  the  heroic  drama  gave  the  theme  an  embodiment 
allied  to  both  opera  and  painting.  Marston,  Nabbes,  and  James  Lee 
exhibit  traces  of  the  musical  potentialities  of  the  Sophonisba  story. 

As  mentioned  in  the  preceding  section,  the  variation  from  Livy's  to 
Appian's  version  of  the  Sophonisba  story,  is  the  most  definite  point 
found  in  the  examination  of  the  ancient  sources  for  the  tragedy  of  Hanni- 
bal and  Scipio,  giving  as  it  does,  a  broad  but  fundamental  clue  to  the 
sources  of  all  the  plays,  both  English  and  foreign,  which  are  connected 
with  this  story  of  the  Second  Punic  War.  The  plays  which  take  Livy's 
version  of  the  story  of  Sophonisba,  keep  close  to  this  historian  throughout 
the  dramatic  action;  those  which  follow  Appian  in  the  Sophonisba  story, 
elect  more  freely  from  the  other  sources  as  well. 

It  is  impossible  even  with  a  thorough  comparison  of  the  plays  which 
are  accessible,  all  deriving,  as  they  more  or  less  do,  from  the  same  Latin 
originals  or  else  from  Renaissance  sources  as  well,  to  say  whether  the 
EngHsh  plays  derived  substantially  from  the  foreign  plays.  The  subject, 
however  may  admit  of  some  discussion.  As  a  basis  for  an  investigation 
of  foreign  plays  upon  the  subject,  the  present  study  is  indebted  to  the 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  47 

thoroughgoing  monograph  of  Dr.  A.  Andrae's  Sophonisba  in  der  fran- 
zosichen  Tragodie.^^ 

In  Dr.  Andrae's  study  a  relation  is  suggested  between  Marston's 
Sophonisba  and  Montchretien's  tragedy  on  the  same  theme.  "It  is 
possible  that  the  Sophonisba  material  was  estabHshed  in  England  through 
Montchretien's  who  took  refuge  there  after  a  duel,  and  at  all  events  after 
he  had  written  his  Sophonisba.  It  is  possible  that  Marston  knew  the 
work  and  was  thus  induced  to  fashion  his  own  play,  though  the  two 
depend  upon  each  other,  only  in  their  use  of  mythical  figures,  Erictho 
in  the  English  play  and  the  furies  in  the  French  play.  "^^^  At  the  time, 
1871,  of  writing  the  monograph  quoted.  Dr.  Andrae  was  not  aware  of 
the  EngUsh  plays,  traditionally  no  longer  extant,  which  preceded  Mar- 
ston's Sophonisba.  In  a  later  note,  1894,  on  his  study  published  in  1891, 
Andrae  mentions  Ward's  record  of  a  Cipio  Africanus,  and  especially 
Ward's  inference  that  this  play  contained  the  Sophonisba  story .^^^ 
Andrae's  interest  in  making  this  note,  apparently  is  in  estabUshing  the 
idea  that  the  story  of  Sophonisba  is  inseparable  from  the  subject  what- 
ever phase  of  it  may  have  been  treated.  Andrae  however  fails  to  note 
the  bearing  that  the  theme  was  estabUshed  in  England  through  Mon- 
tchretien,  and  he  consequently  fails  to  modify  his  former  statement 
with  another  to  the  effect  that  Montchretien's  visit,  early  in  the  reign 
of  James,  to  the  Enghsh  court,  as  an  author  of  a  tragedy  Sophonisba, 
possibly  caused  a  revival  in  England  of  the  motive  already  naturalized 
in  English  drama,  in  the  Cipio  Africanus  of  1579-80,  and  repeated  in 
Hannibal  and  Hermes,  1598,  in  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  the  Fortune,  1601, 
not  to  mention  other  plays  drawn  from  the  subject  of  the  Second  Punic 
War,  and  contemporary  with  the  Cipio  Africanus  such  as  the  Four  Sons 
of  Fabyous,  and  Quintus  Fabius.^^^ 

Andrae  favors  the  possibility  of  a  relationship  among  plays  in  which 
Massanissa  himself  hands  the  poison-cup  to  Sophonisba,  instead  of  merely 
employing  a  messenger  for  this  errand.  In  support  of  this  view  Andrae 
quotes  Schack  whose  analysis  of  the  Spanish  Los  Amantos  de  Cartago 
he  follows,  as  the  original  was  inaccessible  to  himself.     Schack  believes 

^*  Mit  Beriicksichtigung  der  Sophonisbe  bearbeitungen  in  Anderen  Litteraturen, 
von  Dr.  A.  Andrae,  Oppeln  und  Leipzig,  1891. 

'2«  Andrae,  p.  87  refers  to  Schaeck  II,  p.  2>Z  in  support  of  the  view  that  Mont- 
chretien's play  was  known  in  England. 

^2'  Zeitschrift  fur  Neu  franzosichen  Sprach  und  Literatur,  1894,  p.  155. 

'28  Four  Sons  of  Fabyous  acted  1580;  Quintus  Fabius  acted  1574.  See  Revels, 
pp.  154,  51. 


48  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

that  the  Spanish  play  was  possibly  known  to  the  English  dramatists, 
as  Spanish  literature  was  generally  known  in  England.  Andrae  notes  a 
marked  resemblance  between  this  Spanish  play  and  Marston's  Sophon- 
isha.  Though  he  finds  the  date  of  the  Spanish  Los  Amantos  de  Cartago 
uncertain,  he  concludes  from  the  circumstance  of  its  having  been  bound 
with  others  bearing  the  date  1608,  that  it  had  appeared  much  earlier 
and  had  probably  preceded  Marston's  which  was  acted  in  1603.  Andrae 
notes  resemblance  between  Marston's  Sophonisha  and  Los  Amantso 
not  only  in  Massanissa's  method  of  conveying  the  portion  to  Sophonisba 
but  also  in  the  incidents  which  open  the  two  plays,  especially  the  mar- 
riage scene  of  Sophonisba  to  Massanissa  and  in  the  interruption  of  the 
ceremonies  by  the  call  of  Massanissa  to  battle  against  Syphax.  In  both 
plays  there  is  a  compact  between  Scipio  and  Syphax  against  Massanissa 
and  Carthage.  Again  the  arrival  of  Massanissa  before  the  city  gates, 
the  confusion  of  battle,  and  the  duel  in  which  Syphax  falls,  have  notable 
resemblances  in  spite  of  differences  such  as  when  in  Marston's  plan 
Sophonisba  evades  the  decree  of  the  Carthagenian  senate  to  unite  her 
in  marriage  to  Syphax,  and  so  remains  constant  to  Massanissa  through- 
out. Andrae  notes  also  the  same  chronological  sequence  of  events  in 
the  two  plays,  and  concludes  a  possible  borrowing  from  one  or  the  other 
with  the  probabiHty  of  Marston's  indebtedness  to  the  Spanish  play.^^^ 
The  fact  that  Los  Amantos  is  the  only  certified  tragi-comedy  on  the 
subject,  the  draught  given  to  Sophonisba  being  in  this  play  the  conven- 
tional Spanish  sleeping  potion  which  does  not  cause  death,  admits  of 
certain  reflection  upon  the  EngHsh  plays.  Halliwell  quotes  Gifford's 
stricture  and  Langbaine's  interpretation  of  Marston's  Sophonisba  as 
a  satire  on  Jonson's  historical  method,  to  the  effect  that  Marston's  play 
is  no  more  than  "an  honest  general  satire. "^^°  Gifford's  explanation 
places  the  play  logically  on  the  basis  of  an  object  lesson  in  the  use  of 
historical  legend  in  romantic  tragedy,  but  there  is  indeed  pathos  and 
patriotic  sublimity  in  the  death  scene  of  Marston's  Sophonisba  that  is 
scarcely  equalled  in  any  other  play  on  the  subject.  Marston's  Sophonis- 
ba is  a  true  tragedy  and  in  this  respect  differs  vitally  from  the  Spanish 
play. 

The  points  of  sublimity  noted  above  in  the  plays  in  which  Massanissa 
himself  hands  the  potion  to  Sophonisba,  may  be  extended  to  the  cor- 
responding scene  in  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  Nabbes.     It  is  significant 

1-9  Zeitschrift,  p.  69. 

"°  See  Langbaine,  p.  350.  Cf .  Holliwell's  Introd.  to  Plays  of  John  Marston.  See 
Giflford's  Ben  Jonson,  Introd. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  49 

also  that  Nabbes  negates  the  effect  of  a  sleeping  potion  in  Massanissa's 
speech  as  he  hands  the  cup  fo  Sophonisba, 

"This  is  no  potion  to  preserve  a  beauty 

In  its  first  greene;  or  ripe  it  to  a  Summer; 

Or  prevent  th'  Autumme;  or  retume  the  Winter 

Into  a  new  Spring.     This  will  pale  the  dye 

Which  thy  cheek  blushed  when  it  would  cloth  modesty 

In  a  rich  scarlet  ;"^^' 

Again  the  situation  in  which  Massanissa  wishes  to  end  his  own  life 
at  Sophonisba's  death,  as  described  in  Los  Amantos,  is  also  varied  with 
fine  effect  by  Nabbes  when  the  cup  is  conveyed  to  Sophonisba, 

"Give  me  some  wine: 
I'le  drink  a  bridall  health  to  Sophonisba, 
And  mixe  it  with  Nepenthe,  Here's  the  juice 
Will  cause  forgetfulnesse,  and  mask  th'  extremity 
Of  my  adverse  fortune. ^^    (Messenger  enters  with  wine) 

Interpreting  Massanissa's  words  to  refer  to  his  own  death  by  drinking 
of  the  cup,  Sophonisba  begs, 

"Leave  to  breath 
An  errant  o're  it;  that  when  he  is  entred 
Elysium,  throngs  of  Carthagenian  Heroes 
May  bid  him  welcome,  and  informe  themselves 
From  him  of  Sophonisba,  "'^^ 

By  this  artful  movement  Sophonisba  secures  the  cup  for  herself.  The 
entire  scene  is  artistically  contrived  for  Massanissa  and  Sophonisba 
each  to  share  the  inevitable  outcome  and  with  each  to  make  it  fall  as 
lightly  as  possible  on  the  other. 

Scipio's  offer  of  a  Roman  lady  in  marriage  to  Massanissa,  is  similar 
to  the  attempt  in  the  Spanish  play  to  marry  Massanissa  to  Amatilda 
after  the  supposed  death  of  Sophonisba.^  Most  plays  follow  the  story 
of  Sophonisba's  marriage  to  Syphax,  for  patriotic  reasons,  and  her  sub- 
sequent return  to  Massanissa.  The  Spanish  play  is  not  taken  from  Livy, 
nor  from  any  one  source  in  particular,  though  Applian's  version  of 
Sophonisba  is  the  leading  motive.  This  electicism  agrees  with  Nabbes' 
method  of  using  his  sources.     In  respect  of  Los  Amantos,  Andrae  finds 

"iQ.   1116-1126. 

132  Q.  1091-1095. 

133  Q.  1149-1153. 
i3<Q.  1560-1563. 


50  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABEES 

a  certain  indebtedness  to  Petrarch's  Africa  in  Massanissa,  dating  his 
fortunes  from  the  time  of  Scipio's  arrival  in  Africa;  but  there  is  seemingly 
no  necessity  for  tracing  any  such  indebtedness  of  Nabbes  to  Petrarch's 
Africa.  The  indications  are  that  the  resemblances  noted  above  have 
arisen  from  the  same  or  else  similar  sources  used  by  the  two  English 
dramatists  and  by  the  author  of  the  Spanish  play.  As  for  Marston  and 
Nabbes,  the  interpretation  in  both,  of  Sophonisba's  patriotism  is  suf- 
ficiently similar  to  satisfy  the  supposed  indebtedness  of  Nabbes  to  a 
''former  play"  if  Appian  were  not  as  apparently  the  source  of  the  story 
in  both  plays.  Aside  from  the  Sophonisba  story  the  sources  are  ap- 
parently different  even  for  somewhat  similar  features:  Nabbes  drawing 
from  Lucian's  Dialogues  for  the  address  to  the  Ghosts  of  Hannibal  and 
Scipio;  Marston  drawing  from  Lucian's  Pharsalia  for  his  episode  of  the 
witch  Erictho  as  well  as  for  the  subterranean  passage  through  which 
Sophonisba  escapes  Syphax.^^'*  Another  less  easily  explicable  coincidence 
between  Marston  and  Nabbes  may  be  noted  in  the  epilogue  spoken 
by  Scipio  at  the  close  of  the  play  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  and  in  the 
highly  dramatic  touch  in  the  death  scene  of  Marston's  Sophonisba,  where 
Massanissa  takes  the  laurel  wreath  from  his  own  brow,  and  crowns 
Sophonisba  on  her  bier.  Similarly  in  Nabbes'  Epilogue,  Scipio  says, 
.  .  .  .     "To  him  that  writ 

Our  story,  gratefully  I  would  allow 

One  leave  of  Lawrell  tome  from  mine  own  brow. 

Another  author  of  a  Sophonisba,  Nicolas  de  Montreux,  has  in  this 
tragedy,  and  in  the  titles,  at  least,  of  his  other  plays,  a  significant  as- 
sembly. The  list  of  his  plays  includes  besides  a  Sophonisba,  sl  Diana, 
a  Cleopatra,  a  Cyrus,  sl  Hannibal  and  a  Chaste  Joseph.  The  edition  of 
his  Sophonisba  which  Andrae  found  in  a  volume  of  tragedies  by  various 
authors,  bears  the  date  1599.^^^  The  other  plays  of  Montreux,  the  men- 
tion of  which  precedes  that  of  his  Sophonisba,  and  which  for  this  reason 
were  supposedly  prior  in  composition,  have  not  been  located,  though  his 
Hannibal  is  believed  to  be  still  in  manuscript.^^^  The  only  reason  for 
dwelling  upon  Montreux  is  that,  as  far  as  known,  he  is  the  only  foreign 
dramatist  who  wrote  a  play  on  Hannibal,  or  who  has  given  Hannibal 

^36  Lucian  Dial.  XII;  Pharsalia,  Bk.  VI. 

^^  Diverses  tragedies  de  plensiers  Anthems  de  ce  temps,  Recueillies  par  Raphael 
du  Petit  vol.  A.  Rouen,  1599. 

^"  Vol.  39  of  Nicerone  (Jean  P.)  Memorial  Hist,  of  illustrious  men  of  the  republic 
of  letters,  pp.  196-205,  Paris  1727-1745. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  51 

more  than  passing  notice  in  a  play  on  Sophonisba.  In  his  Sophonisba, 
Montreux  has  given  a  brief  scene  also  to  Hannibal. 

Andrae  regards  the  Sophonisba  of  Montreux  as  the  first  French  play 
on  the  theme  to  be  treated  in  any  very  independent  manner  as  contrasted 
with  the  general  tendency  to  follow  Trissino.  Though  in  the  general 
comment  of  his  critics,  Montreux  is  a  poor  playwright,  Andrae  credits 
him  as  far  as  Sophonisba  is  concerned,  with  creating  a  new  role  for  this 
play.  It  is  possible  that  the  individuaUty  of  Montreux  as  regards 
Sophonisba  is  expUcable  by  the  difference  between  his  sources  and  those 
of  Trissino  who  follows  Livy  closely.  Montreux  names  his  sources, 
Appian,  and  Plutarch's  life  of  Scipio  Africanus,  the  same  writers  who 
are  evidently  among  the  original  sources  for  the  Hannibal  and  Scipio 
of  Nabbes.  It  is  possibly  for  this  reason  that  the  same  conflict  between 
love  and  duty,  appears  in  the  debate  which  Montreux  has  Scipio  hold 
with  Laehus  and  Syphax,  as  in  that  Nabbes  has  Scipio  hold  with  Mass- 
anissa.^^  It  is  possibly  also  the  reason  that  both  dramatists  represent 
Scipio  as,  the  servant  of  the  gods,  sacred  and  holy  whom  none  dare  injure 
without  exciting  divine  vengeance.  Both  Montreux  and  Nabbes  are 
indebted  to  Appian  for  Sophonisba's  betrothal  to  Massanissa  before  her 
marriage  to  Syphax,  and  both  give  to  her  a  highly  patriotic  purpose.  In 
Montreux,  however,  Syphax  praises  Sophonisba  even  in  his  defeat, 
whereas  Nabbes  follows  the  Roman  attitude  of  Livy's  version  in  which 
Syhpax  declares  himself  deluded  by  her  beauty,  to  break  his  faith  with 
Rome.  This  is  possibly  also  an  idea  accepted  by  Nabbes  from  the 
''fragment  play."  With  both  Nabbes  and  Montreux,  Massanissa  feels 
defiant  toward  Rome  when  he  fails  to  rescue  Sophonisba.  This  defiance 
is  strongly  marked  in  Montreux'  Massanissa  who  is  a  sort  of  injured 
AchiUes  and  must  be  coaxed  to  fight  against  Carthage.  In  the  tragedy 
of  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  Massanissa's  defiance  is  marked  by  sustained 
sadness  and  distrust  of  Scipio's  boasted  self-command. 

Nabbes  has  avoided  everywhere  what  Andrae  points  out  as  the 
chief  defects  of  Montreux,  who  has  Massanissa  send  the  cup  to  Sophon- 
isba, and  who  in  every  great  crisis  of  the  play  fails  to  bring  these  two 
characters  together  on  the  stage.  Instead  of  Massanissa's  wish  for  a 
noble  death  for  Sophonisba,  accompanied  by  a  prayer  to  the  gods  for 
her  rest,  as  in  Montreux,  Nabbes  is  more  truly  dramatic  in  Sophonisba's 
refusal  of  Massanissa's  prayer  that  Aesculapius  might  avert  the  will  of 
the  gods.  As  in  the  instance  of  certain  similarities  between  the  Sophon- 
isba of  the  tragedy  of  Hannibal  and  Scipio  and  Los  Amantos  de  Carthage, 

"«Q.  950-1035. 


52  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

SO  its  resemblances  with  the  Sophonisha  of  Montreux,  are  such  as  should 
be  expected  of  dramatists  who  have  used  the  same  source  for  their  plays, 
just  as  the  differences  are  those  expected  of  individual  writers  who  add 
original  features  for  particular  scenes. 

With  the  Hannibal  of  Montreux  written  before  1601,  not  available, 
with  the  EngUsh  Hannibal  and  Scipio  of  1598  and  the  Cipio  AJricanus 
of  the  revels,  1579-80,  traditionally  nonextant,  the  tragedy  of  Nabbes 
and  the  Latin  fragment  of  the  Bodleian,  are  the  only  available  extant 
works  remaining  of  those  which  up  to  Nabbes'  own  time,  give  Hannibal, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  play,  his  proper  place  in  the  drama  connected 
with  the  subject  of  the  Second  Punic  War.  In  later  plays,  such  as 
Nathaniel  Lee's  HannihaVs  Overthrow  which  was  acted  in  1703,  the 
character  of  Hannibal  is  far  below  the  heroic  figure  of  history  and  classical 
legend.  In  James  Thomson's  Sophonisha,  acted  in  1730,  Hannibal  is 
once  more  an  accident  of  the  Sophonisha  story  such  as  had  already  been 
portrayed  in  the  Itahan  and  the  French  plays.  Whether  or  not  the 
Bodleian  fragment  is  the  "former  play"  mentioned  by  Nabbes  in  his 
Prologue,  and  whatever  may  have  been  its  relation  to  the  still  earlier 
Enghsh  plays  on  the  same  subject,  Nabbes'  Hannibal  and  Scipio,  up  to 
his  time  and  for  more  than  a  century  thereafter,  remained  the  only  com- 
plete play  extant,  which  is  known  to  preserve  the  Roman  historical 
perspective  of  the  conflict  between  the  old  and  decadant  civilization  of 
Carthage,  and  the  young  and  progressive  civilization  of  Rome,  exhibiting 
each  as  represented  in  great  genius.  Nabbes  adopted  the  traditional 
Roman  point  of  view,  in  dividing  the  strength  of  Carthage  between 
Hannibal  and  Sophonisha:  Hannibal  embodying  her  martial  force  and 
strategy;  Sophonisha  embodying  her  ancient  seductive  charm;  Scipio 
summing  up  the  source  of  Rome's  early  prowess  as  consisting  in  tem- 
perance, fortitude,  wisdom  and  justice,  the  stoic  virtues  of  magnanimous 
patriotism.  The  dramatic  purpose  of  Nabbes  in  his  Hannibal  and  Scipio, 
as  in  all  his  plays,  was  to  realize  character,  and  to  that  end  to  realize 
Hannibal  and  Scipio  as  they  lived  in  the  minds  of  those  they  impressed. 
The  hero  among  men  is  always  investejd  with  legend;  so  Nabbes  reinvested 
Hannibal  and  Scipio  with  the  legend  their  action  inspired.  The  drama- 
tist's purpose  was  not  historical  accuracy,  but  the  accuracy  of  a  known 
perspective  as  these  men  appeared  to  act  upon  their  environment  and 
to  be  reacted  upon  by  it,  in  fine,  that  which  after  all,  constitutes  the 
heroic  personaUty. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 


53 


TRANSCRIPT  OF  A  FRAGMENT  OF  A  PLAY  IN  LATIN  VERSE  IN 
WHICH  HANNIBAL  IS  THE  PRINCIPAL  CHARACTER. 

Bodleian  MS.  20577  (Malone  531). 


ACTUS  I"'  Scena  1' 

Jiino 
(f.   IV   of   the  2nd        Horebit  ergo?  turgidum  attoUet  caput 
item  in  Malone         Invisa  nobis  tenera  gens?  profugus,  iners, 
53  L  Written  by       Perfidus  inermis,  prodita  patriae,  eriget 
16  Cent,  hand)  Romana  jura?  penitus  an  summae  irrita 

Junonis  odia?     Minint  —  iras  dies? 
Pacemne  dedimus,  Romana  qua  fruitur,  datur 
Quod  nuUus  hostis?  cuijus  insana  et  ferox 
Mens  turbo  sicut  rapidus  ex  imo  eruat 
Romaila  sceptra,  cujus  armatus  furor 
Latium  ruina  vertat,  evertat  statim. 
Hostem  deesse  quaerimus?  ast  hostis  datur 
Magnamine  Rutile?  siste  violentum  impetum 
Praelatus  hospes  debitas  poenas  luet. 
Tyrias  per  undas  victor  Europae  venit 
Carthago  peperit  belhcum,  impavidum  virum; 
Emersit  Hannibal,  maria,  terram,  omnia 
Miscebit  atrox,  machinam  mundi  potens 
Dissolvet,  altus  timeat,  et  caveat  sibi 
Junonis  ille  frater.     Enceladi  patrem 
Carthago  enixa  est;  jura  violata  improbe, 
Disrupta  foedera,  et  fidem  ferro  manu, 
Discussam,  ut  ipsa  sacra  divorum  colit. 
Hie  miles  animo  regias  toilet  minas 
Se  vix  inermis  continet  strictus  furor 
(f.  2)  [written  in        Armata.  dextra  quid  velet?  quid  non  vepe* 
MS.  ve  (pe).  Caput  illud  alto  vertice  elatum 

There  may  be  a        Expectat  Helleborum  cruentem  ensem 
letter  cut  off  af-        I  perge  miles  noster  Hannibal,  pede 
ter  ve\  Fausto,  fluente  sanguine  ardentem  sitim 

Sedato,  Latij  regna  jam  tota  excidant 
Iter  ruina  serve,  sit  viUs  pudor 
Superbe,  cresce,  maximum  Hannibilis  de  .  .  . 
Sit  Roma  victa,  sed,  velim  tandem  ruat 
Herculea  quondam  injusta  quod  fecit  m  .  .  . 
Opus  Segunthum,  parta,  sic  parta  ultis 


[51 


[10] 


[151 


[201 


[25] 


[30] 


[35] 


"[The  edges  of  the  book  have  been  trimmed  by  the  binder,  hence  occasionally 
parts  of  a  word  are  cut  away  at  the  end  of  a  line.]" — Note  of  the  copjdst. 


54  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

Scena  2^" 
Hannibal  cum  militibus  et  Boschus  ductor 

Hannibal 
Generosa  sobiles  Martis,  Hannibalem 
Vestrum  creastis,  bellicae  fraenos  rei 
Haec  nostra  retinet,  nostra  moderatur 
Lubens  amorem  amplector  himc,  pariter 

Fidem  pudoris  nesciam,  summe  inc  .  .  .  [40] 

Amplector,  ilia  est  militum  egregium,  de  .  .   , 
Sed  quern  velitis  (milites)  placidum  d  ,  .  . 
Castrls  latentem?  lanquidum  otio  pla  .  .  . 
Ducis  sequester,  dura  qui  nulla  imper  .  .  . 
(f.  2y)  Talem  velitis?  eligite  truncum  ducem,  [45] 

Statuam  create  nulla  quae  bella  exitet, 
Discedat  Hannibal,  aliter  hie  Martem  induit 
Tristes  labores  sitis,  toleranda  famem, 
Caedes,  rapinas,  funera  melius  color 

Intus  reversus  mente  secreta  ex  quo  qiut  [50] 

Oculis  soporem  denego,  frustra  mihi 
Natura  noctem  fecit,  et  frustra  otium. 
Insanit  Imber?    Vertice  occuram  imbribus 
Nee  fulminantis  dextram  timeo  lovis. 

Si  me  velitis  regere,  vos  similes  mej,  [55] 

Faciam  necesse  est;  plura  peragenda  impiger 
Vix  cessat  animus  voce  dum  prodam  meas 
Quis  fuerit  intus  impetus,  quantus  furor. 

Boschus 
Magnanime  ductor,  dulce  Poenorum  decus 

Solus  calescis  frigidum  numquid  putas  [60] 

Hoc  pectus?  ignis  sicut  ^tnaeus  furit 
Te  quaerimur  ipsi  languidum,  tardum  nimis 
Videtur  Hannibali  dubia  nostra  fides? 
Intus  tumescit  animus,  accensus  furor 

Imas  medullas  vrit  impatiens  morae  [65] 

Quid  dura  nerras?  dura  dediscimus  pati 
Dudum,  recentes  non  sumus  vitam  hactenus 
MoUem,  sub  umbra  neutriquam  dux  ut  manus 
haec  tua,  Inbeto  tristia,  horrenda,  impia 

Natura  quicquid  timeat,  aut  horret  nimis  [70] 

Dux  si  inbebit,  fiet,  haud  dubita,  licet 
Fortuna  frendat,  dira  si  Mars  intonat 
Nihil  est,  senectus  languida,  imbellis,  deos 
Curet:  lacertos  numquid  hos  decent  preces? 
Per  fas  nefas  ve  quod  libet  faciam,  viam  [75] 

Si  quid  negabit,  hoc  dabit  ferrum  viam 
Discendit  istud  semitam,  atque  aditum  dabit. 
(f.  3)  Ducas  remota  ad  litora  ignota  hactenu[s] 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  55 

Pino  timenda  navitis,  ducas  velim 

Vrbem  ad  sacertam,  maximam,  armatam,  ire  .  .  .  [80] 

yEquanda  terns  menia,  aequabo  solo 

Sit  ilia  forsan,  Roma,  quis  Romam  tim  .  .  . 

Non  plura  dicam,  militis  certe  probrum  es[t] 

Esse  eloquentem;  Due,  iube,  presto  est  manu 

Ad  exequenda  plura,  quam  Hannibal  imb  .  .  ,  [85] 

Parata  ad  arma  milites  bella  exigunt. 

Omnes  ad  arma. 
Hannibal 

Vos  laudo,  pronum  militem  unanimem  manu 

Accipio,  virtus  iuncta  consilio  magis 

Magisque  nostras  spes  victrix  ratas 

Hannibalis  animus  grande  presentit  bonu  .  .  ,  [90] 

Sed  petite  castra  milites.     Boschus  par  .  .  . 

Maneat,  Quid  intus  animus  evolbit  sci  .  .  . 

Cum  prima  voces  lingua  distinxit  meas 

Sonore  bellum  lingua  Romanum  mea 

Didicit,  et  ipse  primus  hie  sonus  manet  [95] 

Adusque  tempus  istud;  et  primus  furor 

Mecum  senescit,  dirus  et  gratus  comes 

His  adde  invenis,  vel  puer,  vix  tunc  sciens 

Quid  esset  hasta,  bella  quid,  patri  pie 

Testatus  ipsa  numina  dedimus  fidem  [100] 

Hostem  latius  memet  infestum  fore 

lurata  res  est,  debitum  solvam  lubens 

Patri  sepulto,  bella  sic  pietas  velit 

Deesse  patri  nolo,  non  fallam  fidem 

Et  quid  moramur,  ista  si  fiere  placent.  [105] 

[line  cut  away.  

only  the  tops  of 

letters  visible]  Boschus 

Honesta  causa,  pulchra  res,  promptae  satis 

Validae  cohortes,  arma  sumenda  ocyus 

Parens  Amilcar  iussit;  et  dormis  tamen? 

Quid  Vetera  narras  odia,  iam  sonitu  tuba 

Clauxisse  dudem  oportuit,  tacitus  furor  [110] 

Vt  fulmen  aera  dividens  rumpat  foras. 

Hannihal 
Erumpat  ergo;  sentiet  primum  hoc  malum 
Nimium  Sagunthos  libera  accipiat  nisi, 
Animo  lubenti  nostra  quae  dabimus  inga 

Celeres  vocatur  nuncij;  hoc  pie  satis  [Intrant]  [115] 

Dicite  Saguntho  pareat,  quod  si  neget 
Stringantur  ensis;  bella  et  hostiles  manus 
Instare  videat  tuta  pax  frigit  procul 
Micante  fero  et  igne  fugientem  sequar. 

Exeunt  Hannibal  et  Boschus. 


56  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

Scena  3** 
NxjNCij:  Saguntini 

Nimciiis  i"" 
Vrbes  velimus  presides  Dominos :  Sagunt:  sumus  [120] 

Illi  ipsi :  at  unde  sonitus,  et  quid  vult  tuba? 

Nuncius 
lam  statuit  ille  magnus  atque  ingens  virum 
[Duc]tor  superbus  Hannibal,  bella  acriter 
Sumenda  in  hostes  quoslibet,  terram  da  .  .  . 
Aquamque  nisi  patienter,  atque  eius  ferent  [125] 

Imperia  iusta  dicite  hactenus  licet 
Obsequia  minuent  odia,  cedando  duce  .  .  . 
Vobis  pericla  fugere,  quae  capiti  immin  .  .  . 
Nostro  salutem,  tuta  presidia  et  decus 

Paratis,  ampla  spolia;  sin  marti  place  [130] 

Armisque  credere,  bella  nee  dubia  movent 
Bella  haec  cruenta  pace  sublata,  geret 
Poenus,  feroci  cuncta  prostermens  manu 

Sagun  :  SicoRis 
Quid  hoc?  tremiscit  animus,  et  pectus  ,  .  . 
Quid  possit  Hannibal,  petit,  rapiet,  prem  .  .  .  [135] 

Aliena  regna?  teneat  innocuus  manus 
Ductore  dignas  inclyto  fieri  nocens 
Vbique  poterit,  non  potest  fieri  innocens 
Vbique,  pareat  sanguine  nostro  et  suo. 

Vigeat  Sagunthos  libera,  et  semper  dies  [140] 

Vrbs  grata,  nescit  ferre  Poenorum  ingun  .  .  . 
Sed  ista  potius  longa  consilia  expetunt 
Caeca  est  temeritas  cuncta  praecipitans;  d  .  .  . 
Responsa  referet  alius,  hie  nova  attuli  .  .  . 

Nuncius  :  2"^ 

Imo  repente  dicite,  et  palam  et  statim  [145] 

Deliberandum  pace,  sed  sonitus  tubae 

Praesignat  arma  prompta,  qua  nequent  n  .  .  . 

Servare,  dims  militem  exagitat  furor 

Mensura  non  est  illius  motus  dies 

Nunc  dicite  an  haec  conditio  placet  [150] 

Non  est  morandum,  lingua  non  facit  mor  .  .  . 

lam  proroganda,  vestra  mens  quae  sit,  cito 

Statuisse  opportebit  aliter  dubia  est  salu  .  .  . 

Quam  sic  velitis  integram.     lam,  iam  loq  .  .  . 

[The  rest  of  hne        lubes [155] 

cut  away]  *Vertatis:  Ecce  castra  magnanimi  ducis 

(f.  3  v.)  Parere  placeat,  hoc  Saguntinis  dabunt. 

Stragem  et  supulchrum,  nostra  si  imperia  abnuunt. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 


57 


Saguntinus 

Tabifica  mentis  vitia  qua  voce  intonas? 

Mors  tarn  parata  est?     Siste  lethele  impetum;  [160] 

Si'sit  loquendum,  si  labris  sedeat  meis 

Patriae  ruina  sacia  vel  patriae  solus 

Proh  misera  pietas,  Quicquid  in  nostro  crepat 

Carthago  renuo;  Quodque  in  extremis  solet  [165] 

Metus  ipse  fugit,  neutiquam  patriae  decus 

Depono  sponte  sancta,  sed  Poenos  fides 

Pietas  cohibet;  Nuncius:  Punica  at  fallit  fides 

Corrupta  sero  foedera  vigetis,  nihill 
[teste  interlined  F aciunt :  Sagunt:  sacrata  teste  numine  baud  volent  [170] 

above,   hatui  Foedera?    Movebunt  sed  Saguntinos  fides 

struck  out]  Foedusque  Romae  prestitum  sceleris  reus 

Non  ero  nefandi :  Nunci  bella  presignat  tuba. 

Exeunt. 
Chorus: 
Amilcharis  Vmbra 

Olim  nomen  erat  fortis  Amilcharis 

Sat  notum  ducibus,  qui  faera  praelia  [175] 

Hoc  astu  Lybico  digna  per  omnia 

Amplexi,  ac  eadem  tendit  ad  inferos 

Mecum  mens  amimum  non  locus  alterat 

Illinc  sollicitos  nunc  refero  gradus 

Vt  tandem  videam,  quid  facit  Hannibal  [180] 

Belidae  generis,  sunamae  inclytus 

[line  cut  away]  cidus  degener  abditus 

(f.  4)  Castris  ille  latet?  nee  gerit  horrida 

Quae  mundus  timeat?  seu  referat  patrem 

Audax  in  scelera,  haec  nam  sobilem  probant  [185] 

Haec  haedos  similes  patribus  indicant 

Si  vultus  patrios,  atque  animum  patris 

Gestat  terrificum,  concipit  et  novas 

Strages  assidue,  sanguine  de  meo 

Dicam  progenitum,  vivit  Amilcharis  [190] 

E  casto  gremio,  fihus  Hannibal 

Virtutem  aut  vitium  quod  gentor  ten  .  .  . 

Haeres  possideat;  luo  sit  imaginis 

Signati  speciem  reddere  propriam 

Numen  si  recolat,  si  fuerit  pius  [195] 

Quae  non  competerent  castra  sequentibus 

lam  iam  quo  superos  vel  puer  invocat 

In  mentem  subeat,  rumpere  foedera 

Romana,  et  patriae  pellere  dedecus. 

Infans  poUicitus  tanta;  nee  eflfluant  [200] 

Quae  mente  tenerae  sunt  satis  indita 

Excrescat  magis,  ast  Hannibalis  furor 

Et  primo  rapiat  proxima  singula 


58  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

Ad  Roman  facilis  sic  dabitur  via. 

Stabo,  posteritas  quae  facit  effera  [205] 

Spectabo  scelera,  ac  aspiciam  probans. 
ACTUS  2"'  Scena:  1' 

BOSCHUS :  CUM  mititibus 
Quam  sunt  parati  milites?  belli  exitus 
Adstat  secundus,  arma  cum  tereat  manus 
Nescia  repulsae,  qualis  haec  nostra  est  cohors. 

(f.  4.  V.)  Batista 

En  hie  balistam,  ducta  cui  circum  caput  [210] 

Habena  firma,  verbere  insigni  iacit 
Glandes,  vel  ipsa  tela,  si  noceant  magis 
Torquebit  ilia  terminum  ad  caeli  voltimum 
Solus  capessam  bello,  sum  potens  satis. 

Proiector  Saxorum 

En  hie  libranda  saxa  dum  metum  opprimant  [215] 

Valido  lacerto,  brachia  haec  nevos  probant 

His  imientis  hostis  obsistam  impetum 
[edge  of  MS.  lisdemque  pellem  milHa  hostis  agmina 

cut  away]  Solus  capessam  bella,  sum  instructus  satis. 

Lancea 
Impulsa  quid  vult  lancea  haec  nodo  levj  [220] 

Imas  medullas,  ossa  quae  exiccat  calor 
Et  dura  liquit,  fundit  angustos  poros 
Extendit  altum  cuspide  explorans  viam 
Solus  capessam  bella,  sum  validus  satis. 

Sagittaruis 
En  hie  sagittas  toxico  infestas  Hidrae  [225] 

Hae  si  remota  leniter  attingant,  ubi 
Patrio  veneno  Getica  quod  tellus  parit 
Nervas  retorquens  deficit,  valent  tamen 
Satis  in  ruinam,  virus  exitum  dabit 
Solus  capessam  bello,  sum  victor  dolo.  [230] 

Boschus 
(f .  5)  Bene  est,  pericla  quisquis  vel  solus  fere 

Sat  bellicosa  vriba,  Cadmea  domo 
Et  gente  digna,  facta  si  verbis  quod  .  .  . 
Scena  2* 
Intrat  Hanniball 

Hannihall 
Intus  phalanges  se  parent,  dies  adest 
Qua  terminantur  bella  cum  pace  impro  .  .  . 

Exeunt  Boschus  ,  .  .  [235] 

cum  Militihus. 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  59 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Plays  Upon  Which  the  Study  is  Directly  Based 
Bride  (The),  Thomas  Nabbes,  A.  1638  Pr.  1640,  Bullen,  Old  Plays. 
Covent  Garden,  Thomas  Nabbes,  A.  1632-3,  Pr.  1638,  Bullen,  Old  Plays. 
Hannibal  and  Scipio,  Trag.  Thomas  Nabbes,  A.  1635,  Pr.  1637,  Quarto. 
Hannibal,  Fragment  in  Latin  verse,  Bodleian  M.  S.  20577,  Malone  531. 
Microcosmus,  A  Moral  Masque,  Thomas  Nabbes,  A.  1634,  Pr.  1637. 
Presentation  (A)  for  the  Prince,  Thomas  Nabbes,  written,  1638,  Bullen,  1887. 
Spring's  Glory  (The)  Masque,  Thomas  Nabbes,  Written  1638,  Bullen  1887. 
Unfortunate  Mother  (The)  Trag.  Thomas  Nabbes,  Written  1638,  Pr.  1640,  Bullen 
edition  1887. 

Plays  Used  for  Direct  Illustration 
Agrippina,  Empress  of  Rome,  Thomas  May,  Pr.  1654,  Q. 
Albovine,   Sir  Wm.   Davenant,   Edinburgh,    1872. 

Antiquary  (The)  Shackeriey  Marmion,  Pr.  1641,  Hazlitt,  Dodsley  V.  XIII,  1875. 
Cataline,  his  conspiracy,  B.  Jonson,  (Trag)  A.  1611. 
Cleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt  (Trag)  T.  May,  Q.  Pr.  London,  1854. 
Comelii  Nepotis  Vitae,  Excellentium  Imperatorum,  Lipsiae  c/3/3  ccv. 
Dido,  Queen  of  Carthage  (Trag)  Marlowe-Nash,  1591-94. 
Sejanus,  his  Fall,  (Trag)  B.  Jonson,  1603,  1605—. 
Sophonisba,  The  Wonder  of  Women,  (Trag)  J.  Marston,  1603-1806. 
Sophonisba,  or  Hannibal's  Overthrow  (Trag)  N.  Lee,  London,  1722. 
Sophonisba,  James  Thompson,  A.  1788  (Bell's  Brit.  Theat.  V,  18.) 
Sophonisba,   Calotto   Caretto,   Ferrara,  1546. 
Sophonisba,  Antoine  de  Montchretien,   1596. 
Sophonisba,  Giovanni  Giorgio,  A.  1524  (Ed.  with  Tasso's  notes). 
Sun's  DarUng,  (The)  A  Moral  Masque,  Dekker-Ford,  1623. 
Virgin  Martyr   (The)   Dekker-Massinger  (Trag)   A.   1620. 

Plays  Bearing  Less  Directly  Upon  the  Study 

Covent  Garden  Weeded,  Richard  Brome,  A.  1632.  Dramatic  Works  of  Brome,  3 
Vols.,  London,  1873. 

Love  and  Honour,  Sir.  Wm.  Davenant,  A.  1634,  Dramatic  Works  of,  5  Vols.,  Edin- 
burgh, 1872. 

Ordinary  (The),  Wm.  Cartwright,  Pr.  1691,  Dodsley-Hazlitt  V,  XII,  1875. 

Politician  (The)  James  Shirley,  (Trag)  A.  1639,  Pr.  1655,  Dr.  Works  6  Vols.,  London, 
1833. 

Temple  of  Love  (The)  Sir  Wm.  Davenant  (Masque)  A.  1634  Davanant's  Dramatic 
Works,  see  above. 


60  THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES 

Works  Used  for  Biographical  Data  and  General  Comment 
Account  (An)  of  the  English  Dramatic  Poets,  Gerard  Langbaine,  London,   1691. 
Annals  of  the  Stage  etc.,  3  Vols.,  F.  P.  Collier,  V,  1,  London,  1831. 
Biographia  Litera,  V,   1,  fifth  ed.   1838. 
Censura,  Sir  Samuel  Brydges,  10  Vols.,  V,  1. 

Chronicle  (A)  Hist,  of  The  London  Stage,  (1559-1642)  F.  G.  Fleay,  London,  1890. 
Collected  Works  of  Thomas  Nabbes  (Introd.)  A.  H.  Bullen,  London,  1887. 
Companion  to  the  Play  House,  2  Vols.,  1764,  Baker,  London. 
Dictionary  (The)  of  National  Biography,  ed.  Sir  S.  Lee,  Vol.,  XI. 
Elizabethan  (The)  Drama,  1558-1642,  F.  E.  Schelling,  2  Vols.,  2nd  ed.  1889. 
Encyclopedia   Brittanica,    (The). 
Encyclopedia  of  English  Literature   (The). 
Extracts  from  the  Account  of  the  Revels  at  Court  in  the  Reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 

King  James  I,  ed.  by  Peter  Cunningham. 
Genest,  V,  X.  p.  595. 

Henslowe's  Diary,  ed.  W.  W.  Gregg,  2  Vols. 
Historia  Histronica,  Dodsley-Hazlitt,  V,  XX,  Pr.  1699. 
History  of  EngUsh  Dramatic  Literature  to  the  Death  of  Queene  Anne,  4  Vols.,  Sir. 

A.  Ward,  London,   1879. 
History    of    Literature,    Klein    Vol.,    V. 
History  of  French  Literature,  Van.  Laun,  London,  1883. 
Italian   Poets    (The),    Stebbing,   V.  II. 

Knolles'  Richard,  History  of  the  Turks,  Nabbes'  continuation. 
Lectures  on  Dramatic  Literature  in  the  Age  of  Elizabeth,  Hazlitt,  London,  1821. 
Lives  of  the  Poets  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Gibber,  5  Vols.,  London,  1783. 
Old  and  New  London,  W.  Thombury,  London.     Undated. 
Specimens  of  the  English  Dramatic  Poets,  Charles  Lamb,  ed.  by  Israel  Gollanez, 

London,  1893. 

Sources  Consulted  for  Hannibal  and  Scipio  and  for  Other  Plays  on  the  Subject 
OF  THE  Second  Punic  War 

A 

Primary  and  Approximate  Sources 
Appian's  Roman  History,  4  Vols.,  (V,  1-2)  edited  and  accompanied  with  translation, 

by  Horace  White,  London,   1912. 
Cicero,  M.  Tullius,  De  Lege  Agraria,   11:36. 

The  Correspondence  of,  4  Vols.  ed.  Robert  Yelverton,  Tyrrell, 
Dublin  and  London,   1885,  See  V.  Ill,  23. 
Claudianus,  Claudius,  Idylleia,  etc. 

Homer,  The  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  ed.  William  Dindorf,  Lipsiae,  Teubner,  1908. 
Horatii  (Q)  Flacci,  Opera  Illustr.  by  C.  W.  King,  Revised  by  H.  A.  J.  Munro,  London, 

1869. 
Juvenal,  D.  Juni,  Thirteen  Satires,  2  Vols.,  (Vol.  1)  John  E.  B.  Mayor,  London,  1893. 
Titi  Livi,  In  Urbe  Condi ta,  Libri,  erklert  von  W.  Weissenborn,  Berlin,  1860  B.  XXX. 
Lucian  of  Samosata,  The  Works  of,  Trans.  H.  W.  and  F.  G.  Fowler,  Oxford,  1905. 
Ovid  (Publius  Ovidius  Naso)   Fasti. 

Pliny  (Plini  Secundi  Naturalis,  Historiae,  Hamburg  et  Gothae,  1851. 
Pliny's  Natural  History  Trans,  by  Bostwick  and  Riley,  (Bohn  Lib.)  London,    1845. 


:  : :-. : : 

•  •  •  ••  • 

•  •  •  •  • 


THE  DRAMATIC  WORKS  OF  THOMAS  NABBES  61 

Plutarch's  Lives  of  the  Noble  Grecians  and  Romans,  Englished  by  Sir  Thomas  North, 
1579,  Vol.,  VI,  ed.  G.  Wyndham,  (Annibal)  (Scipio  African).    London,  1896. 

Polybius,  General  Hist,  of  the  Wars  of  the  Romans,  Trans,  from  Greek  by  Mr.  Hamp- 
ton, London,  1812. 

Strabonis  Geographia,   Parisiis,   1853. 

Virgil  (P)  Maronis  Opera,  ed.  T.  L.  Papillon  and  A.  E.  Haigh,  Oxford,  1892. 

Xenophon,  Cyropaedia  and  Memorabilia,  Trans.  Bohn,  Lib. 

Secondary  Sources  consulted  for  reference  to  primary  sources,  and  for  comment,  textual 

notes,  etc. 
Andrea's  Sophonisba  in  der  Franzosischen  Tragodie,  Oppeln  und  Leipsig,  1891. 
Arnold,  Thomas,  Hist,  of  Rome  V,  III,  2nd  ed.  London,  1845. 
Arnold  Thomas,  A  Life  of  Hannibal  (Famous  Warrior  Series)  New  York,  no  date. 
Bandello,  see  Painter,   (below). 
Boccacio,  see  Painter,   (below). 
Crutwell,  C.  T.  Hist.  Roman  Lit.  N.  York,  1887. 
Dodge,  T.  A.  Hannibal  (A  defense  of  Hannibal)  New  York,  1891. 
Donaldson,  James,  Woman,  Her  Position  and  Influence  in  Ancient  Greece  and  Rome, 

New  York,  1907. 
Fairbanks,  Arthur,  The  Mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome,  New  York,  1907. 
Green,  J.  R.,  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  New  York,  1888. 
Harper's  Dictionary,  Classical  Antiquities,  New  York,  1896. 
Morley  Edition,  Character  Writings  of  Seventeenth  Century,  London,  1891. 
Mommson,  Theodor,  Hist,  of  Rome  V,  II,  Transl.  by  W.  P.  Dickon,  New  York,  1900. 
Niebuhr.  G.  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Rome  3  Vols.,  London,  1849. 
Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure,  ed.  J.  Jacobs  V,  11,  London,  1890. 
Petrarch's  II  Trionfo  d'  Amore,  Trans.  Bohn  Lib. 
Preller,    L.    Romische   Mythologie,    Berlin,    1881. 

Raleigh,  Sir.  W.,  History  of  the  World  in  Six  Books,  Vols.,  V  and  VI,  Edinburgh,  1820. 
Schelling,  F.  E.,  English  Literature  in  the  Time  of  Shakespeare,  New  York,  1910. 
Seyffert,  Oscar,  Dictionary  of  Classical  Antiquities,  etc.  London,  1891. 
Simcox,  G.  A.,  Hist,  of  Latin,  Literature,  Ennius  to  Boethius,  2  Vols. ,^New  York,  1906. 
Smith,  Wm.,  Dictionary  Greek  and  Roman,  Antiq.  London,  1891. 
Warton,  Thomas,  History  of  English  Poetry,  3  Vols.,  V,  I,  London  1840. 
Wright,  Thomas,  A  Dictionary  of  Obsolete  and  Provincial  English,  London,  1857. 


Part  II  of  this  Thesis  consists  of  a  transcript  of  the  Quarto  text, 
1637,  of  Bannihal  and  Scipio,  with  some  introductory  pages  remaining 
from  the  part  here  pubhshed.  The  text  is  accompanied  with  notes 
and  a  glossary. 


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